There has been a significant increase in scholarly research focusing on marketing capabilities as an important aspect of marketing theory–based explanations of firm performance. This growing research interest in marketing capabilities has also been reflected in the international marketing literature. However, it is unclear whether and how thinking and research about international marketing capabilities differs from that of marketing capabilities in a domestic market context. To explore this question, the authors conduct a review of studies of marketing capabilities in the most influential journals publishing research in international marketing. They supplement this with insights from interviews with executives in firms engaged to varying degrees in international marketing. The study suggests that there remain numerous important unanswered questions in conceptualizing and empirically researching international marketing capabilities.

Marketing strategy is a construct that lies at the conceptual heart of the field of strategic marketing and is central to the practice of marketing. It is also the area within which many of the most pressing current challenges identified by marketers and CMOs arise. We develop a new conceptualization of the domain and sub-domains of marketing strategy and use this lens to assess the current state of marketing strategy research by examining the papers in the six most influential marketing journals publishing such papers over the period 1999 through 2017. We uncover important challenges to marketing strategy research-not least the increasingly limited number and focus of studies, and declining use of both theory and primary research designs. However, we also uncover numerous opportunities for developing important and highly relevant new marketing strategy knowledge-the number and importance of unanswered marketing strategy questions and opportunities to impact practice has arguably never been greater. To guide such research, we develop a new research agenda that provides opportunities for researchers to develop new theory, establish clear relevance, and contribute to improving practice.

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Scholars have expressed concern that marketing's influence at the strategic levels of the firm is waning. Consistent with this view, only 2.6% of firms’ board members have marketing experience. The authors suggest that this is shortsighted and that including more marketing-experienced board members (MEBMs) will increase firm growth by (1) helping firms prioritize growth as a strategic objective and (2) contributing their expertise to improve the effectiveness of revenue growth strategies. Drawing on the behavioral model of corporate governance, the authors develop a theoretical framework explicating the situational, dispositional, and structural influence moderators that alter the impact of MEBMs on firm growth. Using 64,086 director biographies from S&P 1500 firms, the authors find that MEBMs positively affect firm-level revenue growth and that this relationship is strengthened or weakened by important contingencies that occur in the firm. The findings suggest that the common practice of not including experienced marketers on boards of directors puts firms at a competitive disadvantage.

Marketing scholars have recently embraced the study of the corporate upper echelons-the executives and board members atop the organizational hierarchy. However, management scholars have researched the upper echelons for decades, with frequent forays into the marketing strategy domain. As a result of progressing in two separate disciplines, the literature on marketing strategy and the upper echelons is fragmented and disjointed. We develop an organizing framework to review extant research and assess and synthesize the knowledge in the upper echelons marketing strategy domain. Our review covers the 14 most influential marketing and management journals from 1984 through February, 2020. Given the relative newness of this research within marketing, we develop a conceptual model fusing existing theory in the upper echelons and marketing strategy literatures, and use this to identify key blind spots and underdeveloped areas of knowledge caused by the two fields' independent evolutions. Finally, we also examine challenges associated with conducting research in this area and provide recommendations to help researchers and reviewers navigate these challenges to advance theory and practice.

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