capability structure and its effect on sustainability of competitive advantage.

Table 1: Integrative model displaying amplification of competitive advantage with three layers of capability formation

Management researchers have conferred paramount importance to the fundamental understanding of the key role of marketing function in enabling firms to create and sustain competitive advantage (Kozlenkova et al. 2013; Morgan 2012). To conceptualize a product/service offering that will provide customers with superior value, a manager must be knowledgeable of the market they intend to serve (Narver and Slater, 1994). Along with market knowledge the firm also needs to be endowed with stock of or have access to a broad array of resources (Mahmoud and Kastner, 2010).

Evidence from the marketing literature has shown that marketing capabilities are important drivers of firm competitive advantage (Krasnikov and Jayachandran 2008). Capabilities are found at different levels in the firm, quite a few of which are from cross functional areas (e.g., Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). However, capabilities relating to market resource deployment are usually associated with the marketing function (e.g., Danneels, 2007; Dutta, Zbaracki, and Bergen, 2003).

Marketing capabilities are specific type of organizational capability is which could be defined as the integrative process of applying and linking shared organizational knowledge, skills, and resources to market-related needs (Vohries and Harker, 2000, Tsai &Shih 2004). Marketing capability is a key to the market-related deployment mechanism that helps an organization to acquire, combine, and transform its market-based resources to assist it to achieve its desired performance (Day, 1994; Morgan, Vorhies, & Mason, 2009). The present study focuses on the value of a set of specific marketing capabilities like product development capabilities, customer relationship management capab