Building marketing performance through digital marketing and database-based networking capability in Indonesian SMEs

This study aims to bridge the theoretical gap in the relationship of business ability to build relationships with marketing performance in the digital economy era, marked by the application of IT in its business activities. The progress of the digital economy is currently increasing in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Data collection was conducted by distributing questionnaires to the owners and managers of SMEs in the city of Medan. Questionnaires were distributed to 175 respondents using non-probability sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Testing models and hypotheses using Structural Equation Model (SEM) was conducted with AMOS software version 23. The results show that SMEs are more likely to build and develop database-based networks to improve marketing performance. It is empirically proven that digital marketing, strategy quality, and relationship-building skills improve SMEs' marketing performance in Medan City. Theoretically, this study contributes in highlighting the strategy quality and relational database as moderating variables in the relationship between relational capability and marketing performance in digital business.