Introduction
The importance of the phenomenon called digitization cannot be denied in the contemporary world. It has changed the whole scenario for the businesses. The concept of digital marketing has taken over the world not only in the developed countries but the developing countries are also facing a shift from the traditional marketing practices towards the digital marketing channels. This shift has not only shifted the marketing channels of communication but also the way the business models are used to be designed in the past. According to Phillips (2015), the corporation in the current era recognizes the importance of “digital relationship” that must be maintained with the customers where the digital technologies play an immense role in changing the lives of the customers. The transformation brought by the digital technologies in the lives of the customers in various areas. Digital marketing is basically employing all the digital channels in order to advertise at a high level. It is the use of digital technologies to market the products and services of a company. It employs not only the internet but various other devices and digital mediums.
Thus realizing the importance of the role that the digitization can play in the businesses to maintain competitive advantage it is very important to delve into the deeper understanding of the concept. This article aims to conduct a systematic review of research on the identifying the ways through which digitization can help the firms to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketing literature. The scope of this research has been made limited to provide the effective analysis on the core issue. As the whole marketing process is a cumbersome process and is difficult to cover, this article shall focus on the role of digitization through digital marketing for the firm to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. Thus it shall cater two areas firstly, the role of digital marketing and what impact it causes in an organizational developmental process and secondly how a company can maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the digital world.
Further, in the discourse of this article, the research for relevant literature shall be limited to certain journals of marketing and within the certain time frame, in order to define the scope of our search of the question proposed. The journal includes, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Marketing and the time frame of research includes 2000 to 2018. The keywords which are used to extract the articles include “digital”, “competitive advantage” and “sustainable competitive advantage”. The article search has been limited to 20 articles for this systematic review paper. After compiling all the required data, each article shall be classified according to certain dimensions in order to identify the commonalities and differences which may be found among the studies and the gaps which may be identified. Finally, the managerial implications shall be highlighted in the study and the synthesis of all the observations obtained after a comprehensive review of the literature that will help in pointing out the replication and overlap, controversies and disagreements. In a nutshell, it will enable the future researchers to explore the further possibilities that this review shall point out.
References
Digital marketing. (2018). En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 28 March 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_marketing
Phillips, E. (2015). Retailers scale up online sales distribution networks. The Wall Street Journal November 17, 2015. Accessed from http://www.wsj.com/articles/ retailers-scale-up-online-sales-distribution-networks-1447792869
What is Digital Marketing? Overview & Resources. (2016). Marketo.com. Retrieved 28 March 2018, from https://www.marketo.com/digital-marketing/
