Digital technologies are key to achieving competitive advantage across marketing and retailing contexts. At the same time, marketing managers are confronted with a variety of challenges surrounding the strategic use of these technologies and the need to re-think their digital strategies. Importantly, managers need to develop a deeper understanding of consumer attitudes towards and engagement with (or lack thereof) digital technologies. Marketing strategists can benefit from academic marketing’s thought leadership to learn how they can transform these challenges into strategic opportunities for competitive advantage. This can lead to technological innovations that create customer, firm, and societal value. Some of these benefits are described in the articles that make up this special issue. We propose a framework that focuses on the role of strategic resources used by managers to develop and deliver on the promise of digital technologies. Then, we report insights from 16 boardroom interviews with senior marketing managers resulting in three broad themes: decentralized marketing, metamodern customer experiences, and marketing mechanization. We close with a research agenda to motivate additional thought-leading research in this fast-growing area.

数字技术是在营销和零售环境中获得竞争优势的关键。与此同时，营销经理面临着围绕这些技术的战略使用以及重新思考其数字战略的需要的各种挑战。重要的是，管理者需要更深入地了解消费者对数字技术的态度和参与（或缺乏）。营销战略家可以从学术营销的思想领导力中受益，以了解他们如何将这些挑战转化为竞争优势的战略机遇。这可以导致创造客户、公司和社会价值的技术创新。组成本期特刊的文章中描述了其中一些好处。我们提出了一个框架，该框架侧重于管理者用来开发和兑现数字技术承诺的战略资源的作用。然后，我们报告了对高级营销经理的 16 次董事会访谈的见解，得出了三个广泛的主题：去中心化营销、元现代客户体验和营销机械化。我们以研究议程结束，以在这个快速发展的领域激发更多的思想领先的研究。