Strategic Marketing Capabilities for Enhancing Marketing Performance: The Mediating Role of Innovation Capability in Women-Owned Emping SMEs

The marketing performance of women-owned traditional food SMEs is increasingly challenged by changing consumer behavior and rapid digital transformation. This study examines the effects of market orientation, social media orientation, and digital leadership on marketing performance through innovation capability among 200 women-owned emping SMEs in Pandeglang Regency, Banten, Indonesia, using PLS-SEM with SmartPLS 4. The results reveal that all three strategic marketing capabilities positively influence both innovation capability and marketing performance. In contrast, innovation capability significantly enhances marketing performance and mediates the relationships between the three antecedent variables and marketing performance. Among the predictors, digital leadership exerts the strongest influence on innovation capability, whereas innovation capability emerges as the most important determinant of marketing performance. These findings extend the Resource-Based View and Dynamic Capabilities Theory by demonstrating that strategic marketing capabilities contribute to superior marketing performance only when they are transformed into sustainable innovation capability, highlighting the importance of strengthening digital leadership, innovation capability, market orientation, and the strategic use of social media to enhance the long-term competitiveness of women-owned SMEs.