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1. Introduction
There have been a considerable amount of contributions to the dynamic capabilities approach since the seminal article by Teece et al. (1997). This field is changing rapidly (Oliver and Holzinger, 2008; Karna et al., 2016) and is at the forefront of the research agendas of many scholars (Zahra et al., 2006; Helfat and Peteraf, 2015). As already recognized, the resource-based view (RBV) does not explain competitive advantage in more complex and changing environments because of its static nature (Zander and Kogut, 1995; Priem and Butler, 2001; Danneels, 2008; Bingham et al., 2015). The theoretical and managerial relevance of these matters is related to the sustainability of competitive advantage in rapidly changing environments (Teece et al., 1997; Zahra et al., 2006), but also in moderate contexts (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000) when “firms obviously do integrate, build, and reconfigure their competencies even in environments subject to lower rates of change” (Zollo and Winter, 2002, p. 340). Makadok (2001) considers the type of environment irrelevant but that it always plays a role (Schilke, 2014).
Regardless of environmental circumstances, a dynamic capabilities approach is riddled with heterogeneity and, two decades after its birth, is far from being consolidated, with scholars pointing in opposite directions in a remarkably rich, but often disconnected, body of research (Barreto, 2010).
Amidst all the works published on this subject, some critics have voiced opposition to the dynamic capabilities approach and used attributes like “vague” or “tautological” to describe it (Williamson, 1999; Kraatz and Zajac, 2001). This has triggered elusive responses by those scholars who defend the approach (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000).
In all this discussion, there are two points of agreement. First, the dynamic capabilities approach is not yet a theory (Teece, 2007; Helfat and Peteraf, 2009; Barreto, 2010). Second, empirical work is in its infancy and, as yet, has a low level of support (Zott, 2003; Moliterno and Wiersema, 2007; Newbert, 2007; Kor and Mesko, 2013).
Against this background, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of empirical work in the field, to study the effect of dynamic capabilities on performance through marketing capabilities. Specifically, we have two objectives. First, we aim to develop a model establishing the contribution to marketing capabilities...