EXPRESS: Dynamic Capabilities Framework: Prospects and Limitations for Advancing International Marketing Knowledge and Practice

The Dynamic Capabilities Framework (DCF) is particularly useful for understanding how firms compete in volatile global markets by sensing opportunities, seizing strategic initiatives, and transforming their resource base. We examine DCF's specific relevance to international marketing theory, research, and practice. We identify conditions under which DCF is especially applicable to cross-border marketing strategy—including foreign market entry, digital transformation, global supply chain management, and crisis response—and contrast these with settings where its explanatory power is limited. Drawing on DCF-grounded research published in the Journal of International Marketing and illustrated through cases, we advance five propositions linking DCF's sensing, seizing, and transforming mechanisms to international marketing outcomes. We also compare DCF with six alternative theoretical frameworks to clarify its unique contributions and boundary conditions. We conclude by identifying where DCF's explanatory power is most urgently needed—and where the field's frameworks have not yet kept pace with the internationalization patterns firms actually exhibit.