TITLE:
Strategic Adaptation and Competitive Advantage: Evaluating the Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Cameroon’s Emerging Market
AUTHORS:
Chefor Patrick, Yuxin Lu
KEYWORDS:
Dynamic Capabilities, Competitive Advantage, Strategic Adaptation, SMEs, Cameroon, Emerging Markets, PLS-SEM
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.5,
May
27,
2026
ABSTRACT: The study investigates the role of dynamic capabilities in facilitating strategic adaptation and generating sustainable competitive advantage among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Cameroon’s emerging market. Grounded in the dynamic capabilities framework and the resource-based view, the research examines how sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capabilities influence strategic adaptation and market performance. The study distinguishes dynamic capabilities as latent organisational processes from strategic adaptation as the observable recalibration of competitive posture, arguing that the latter constitutes the behavioural channel through which dynamic capabilities produce competitive effects. A cross-sectional survey of 387 SME owner-managers across three regions of Cameroon was analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). Results indicate that sensing (β = 0.342, p β = 0.287, p β = 0.219, p β = 0.461, p β = 0.156, p