Benchmarking Marketing Capabilities for Sustainable Competitive Advantage

TLDR

Market-based organizational learning is a key source of sustainable competitive advantage, and benchmarking is a widely used tool for enhancing marketing capabilities, yet empirical evidence on its effectiveness remains scarce. The study investigates whether benchmarking marketing capabilities of top-performing firms yields business performance benefits. The authors empirically assess this by analyzing benchmarking practices and performance metrics in these firms. The results indicate benchmarking can become a key learning mechanism for building marketing capabilities that deliver sustainable competitive advantage.

Abstract

Market-based organizational learning has been identified as an important source of sustainable competitive advantage. One particular learning mechanism, benchmarking, is a widely used management tool that has been recognized as appropriate for identifying and enhancing valuable marketing capabilities. However, despite widespread admonitions to managers, the benchmarking of marketing capabilities as a route to sustainable competitive advantage has received scant empirical attention. The authors empirically examine the potential business performance benefits available from benchmarking the marketing capabilities of top-performing firms. The results suggest that benchmarking has the potential to become a key learning mechanism for identifying, building, and enhancing marketing capabilities to deliver sustainable competitive advantage.