Examining the Impact of Marketing Capabilities and Marketing Strategies on Business Performance of Export Firms (Case Study: Chocolate Industry in Tabriz)

Nowadays, it has become difficult to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty due to expanding of globalization process, increase competition, entry of different domestic and foreign firms, diversified products and technology advancement. Therefore, utilizing marketing capabilities and strategies to survive in the competitive markets seems necessary as these two factors can provide a good basis for improving the business performance of the firm. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of marketing capabilities and strategies on the business performance of export firms in the chocolate industry in Tabriz. The population includes all managers and senior staff of Tabriz chocolate exporting firms. The sample size was 215 using Cochran formula and were selected based on non-random purposive sampling method. Standard questionnaire was used to measure variables. Validity of the questionnaire was assessed based on construct validity, diagnostic and convergent validity and reliability of the questionnaire was measured with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The research model was tested according to the structural equation method and LISREL software. The results showed that marketing architecture capabilities, marketing specialized capabilities, and marketing cross-functional capabilities had a significant positive effect on the internal and external effectiveness of implementing export marketing strategies. Also, significant positive effect of internal effectiveness on the external effectiveness of implementation of export marketing strategies was confirmed. Finally, significant positive impact of external effectiveness of implementing export marketing strategies on business performance including customer performance, market performance and financial performance was confirmed.