Digital Marketing Capabilities and Competitive Advantage in Family-Owned SMEs: A Theoretical Framework for Emerging Market Contexts

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding the role of digital marketing capabilities in shaping competitive advantage among family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging market contexts. Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic-capabilities theory, and the literature on socioemotional wealth in family firms, the study integrates three streams of scholarship that have remained largely separate: marketing-capabilities research, family-business strategy, and the digital transformation of small enterprises. Building on a structured review of forty-two peer-reviewed sources indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, the analysis identifies four interrelated dimensions of digital marketing capability—customer-insight orientation, omnichannel engagement, brand-building agility, and digital relational governance—that together mediate the relationship between family ownership and firm-level competitive performance in emerging markets. The framework is illustrated through an empirical vignette drawn from family enterprises operating in Central Asia, where rapid digital adoption coexists with strong traditions of family-based ownership. The findings carry implications for the strategic management of family SMEs, for emerging-market marketing scholarship, and for the design of public policies that support inclusive digital transformation in transition economies. Several directions for future empirical research are identified, including longitudinal capability-building studies, comparative cross-country investigations, and the integration of socioemotional wealth perspectives into the measurement of digital marketing performance.