Dynamic Capabilities Framework: Prospects and Limitations for Advancing International Marketing Knowledge and Practice

Abstract

The Dynamic Capabilities Framework (DCF) is particularly useful for understanding how firms compete in volatile global markets by sensing opportunities, seizing strategic initiatives, and transforming their resource base. The authors examine the DCF's specific relevance to international marketing theory, research, and practice. They identify conditions under which the DCF is especially applicable to cross-border marketing strategy—including foreign market entry, digital transformation, global supply chain management, and crisis response—and contrast these with settings where its explanatory power is limited. Drawing on DCF-grounded research published in the Journal of International Marketing and illustrated through cases, the authors advance five propositions linking the DCF's sensing, seizing, and transforming mechanisms to international marketing outcomes. They also compare the DCF with six alternative theoretical frameworks to clarify its unique contributions and boundary conditions. The article concludes by identifying where the DCF's explanatory power is most urgently needed—and where the field's frameworks have not yet kept pace with the internationalization patterns firms actually exhibit.