The impact of digital technologies, intellectual capital and corporate social responsibility on marketing performance

Purpose We explore the joint impacts of digital technologies (DT), intellectual capital (IC), IC components and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on marketing performance (MP), with a consideration of the moderating role of IC. Design/methodology/approach 2SLS is employed for 14,579 firms operating in Vietnam to analyze the impacts. Findings Our findings show that DT and IC enhance MP, while their interaction reveals diminishing returns. Excessive integration between DT and structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency decreases MP, while the interaction between DT and human capital efficiency enhances MP. CSR enhances sales per employee for all firms but reduces sales/marketing costs for large firms. Originality/value Unlike previous scholars, we develop and test an integrated model that simultaneously integrates DT, IC, IC components and CSR through organizational and stakeholder mechanisms. We are among the first to explore the moderating role of IC in the digital technology-marketing performance (DT-MP) link, providing new insight into how IC can amplify MP. We offer an integrative, nonlinear perspective in which IC functions as a moderating role and CSR acts as a trade-off mechanism.