Abstract
Marketing planning is an important capability in that it helps firms to methodically organize the processes needed to develop marketing strategy and direct marketing activities (Lee et al. 2013). Slotegraff and Dickson (2004) consider marketing planning as an essential strategic routine that “can cultivate an organizational capability through the integration, combination, and reconfiguration of a firm’s resources” (p. 371). The stronger the marketing planning capability, the more the firm exhibits all-encompassing approach to strategic planning. We draw on this assertion to suggest that firms with stronger marketing planning capability are likely to develop marketing ambidexterity—namely the ability to improvise marketing strategies as well as the ability develop comprehensive marketing strategies (Slotegraaf and Dickson 2004).
Extant empirical studies examining marketing planning capability have used industrialized economies, such as the United States or Australia as research contexts (e.g. Slotegraaf and Dickson 2004; Taghian 2010). Since marketing planning capability serves as an important firm resource in delivering superior customer value, there is an increasing need to investigate this crucial strategic capability in emerging markets, especially since the emerging markets are experiencing astonishing growth rates and greater examinations of marketing phenomena are needed in non-western contexts (Burgess and Steenkamp 2006).
Against this backdrop, we conceived and empirically tested a model that linked the firm’s marketing planning capability to two critical mediating variables, that of marketing strategy comprehensiveness and marketing strategy improvisation, which ultimately led to firm performance. We empirically test of the relationships within our conceptual model by using dyadic data from senior marketing managers and senior-level executives in the firm. We examine this phenomenon in Saudi Arabia (SA). SA is an optimal research context since SA’s economy is the world’s 11the largest, and is a rapidly growing economy that plays a significant role within the Arab League (Mahajan 2013).
The results find that marketing planning capability has a significant effect on marketing strategy comprehensiveness. Marketing planning capability is also significantly related to improvisation. Our findings contribute to the marketing literature by examining the link between marketing planning capability and firm performance by better understanding the value of the mediating effects of the comprehensiveness of marketing strategies and marketing strategy improvisation.