Marketing analytics capability, artificial intelligence adoption, and firms' competitive advantage: Evidence from the manufacturing industry

Data-driven analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) have become the most crucial aspects of today's industrial marketing management. Although many firms have embraced analytics and AI strategies, corresponding academic advances have been slow. This research investigates how industrial goods manufacturers sustain their competitive advantage in export markets, convincing buyers in a competitive data-rich business environment. The evidence has been taken from the RMG (readymade garment) industry, one of the largest manufacturing industries significantly attached to the export markets. Utilizing multi-phase research design, the study reveals that firms marketing analytics capability play a vital role in sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring the market, consequently leading to a sustained competitive advantage. The performance of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring becomes higher for a firm when they adopt AI on the strength of the marketing analytics platform. These findings exhibit the latest avenue of exploration within marketing analytics and AI's academic research paradigm. Further, in practice, managers will be aware of the facts that create resilience in this specific industry context.