The Influence of Digital Marketing and Marketing Capabilities on the Marketing Performance of Culinary MSMEs in Sukaraja through Competitive Advantage

Abstract

The rapid development of digital technology has encouraged culinary Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to utilize digital marketing and marketing capability to enhance competitive advantage and marketing performance. This study aims to analyze the influence of digital marketing and marketing capability on the marketing performance of culinary MSMEs in Sukaraja District, Sukabumi Regency, with competitive advantage as a mediating variable. A quantitative causal-associative approach was employed through a Likert-scale questionnaire survey of 200 culinary MSME respondents selected using purposive sampling. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) with SmartPLS software. The results show that digital marketing has a positive and significant effect on both marketing performance and competitive advantage. Marketing capability has a positive and significant effect on competitive advantage but no significant direct effect on marketing performance. Competitive advantage shows a negative and significant effect on marketing performance and fails to significantly mediate the effect of digital marketing or marketing capability on marketing performance. These findings indicate that the improvement of culinary MSMEs' marketing performance is driven more directly by digital marketing than through competitive advantage. Culinary MSME actors are advised to optimize digital marketing and continue developing marketing capability to strengthen competitiveness amid increasingly competitive markets.