Dynamic Marketing Capabilities : Organizational Renewal Towards Social Media Marketing

Abstract: Through a qualitative study based on an integrative model of dynamic marketing capabilities (DMCs), we have aimed to investigate how acquisition and integration of market knowledge have affected the process of organizational adaptation towards social media marketing and how this has led to a reconfiguration and adaptation of the firms’ organizational resources and capabilities. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with five case companies; Bambino MAM, L’Oréal Nordics, Oriflame, Unilever, and Åhléns. All companies in this study have to some degree reconfigured its organizational structure based on shifting market conditions in terms of increased importance of presence in social media. The absorption and utilization of market knowledge have been of major importance for initiating the transition process. In this regard, DMCs are to some degree identified in all the interviewed companies. The most prominent factors that enable the development of DMCs found between the interviewed companies is the wide use of external networks in identifying new trends and developing the competence, and the emphasis on having high expectations on employees to search for opportunities and trends. Furthermore, empowering employees to test and learn may be an influential factor in strategies to absorb market knowledge for organizational renewal.