Digital Marketing Capabilities and MSME Business Performance: An Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

Digital transformation has reshaped the competitive landscape of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), making digital marketing capability increasingly important for market expansion, customer engagement, innovation, and business performance. This study aims to synthesize the relationship between digital marketing capabilities and MSME business performance and to identify the key organizational factors and mechanisms that support this relationship. An integrative literature review was conducted by examining peer-reviewed studies published predominantly between 2017 and 2026 on digital marketing capability, digital transformation, market orientation, social media marketing, innovation capability, and SME/MSME performance. The synthesis indicates that digital marketing capability contributes to business performance through several interrelated mechanisms, including market sensing, digital customer engagement, data-driven marketing, channel integration, customer relationship management, and innovation capability. Market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, technological readiness, and organizational learning were identified as important antecedents that strengthen the development of digital marketing capabilities. The review also shows that environmental dynamism, market turbulence, resource availability, and digital maturity can influence the effectiveness of these capabilities. The findings suggest that the use of digital platforms alone is insufficient to ensure superior performance. MSMEs are more likely to achieve sustainable performance improvements when digital technologies are integrated into coordinated marketing, customer, and organizational capabilities.