Marketing Control and Proactive Marketing and Their Role in Enhancing Sustainable Competitive Advantage A Survey Study of the Opinions of a Sample of Workers in Private Hospitals in the City of Mosul

This research aimed to identify the extent of the influence of the independent variables represented by marketing control in the environment of private hospitals, given its growing role in the healthcare sector, and in light of the increasing competition and successive environmental changes witnessed. The research problem was represented by the question: To what extent do marketing control and proactive marketing influence sustainable competitive advantage? A number of main and sub-hypotheses were formulated to test the relationships of influence between the research variables, based on the hypothetical scheme prepared by the researcher. The researcher used the descriptive and analytical approach due to its suitability for the nature of the research. The questionnaire was adopted as the primary tool for collecting data from a random sample of (118) individuals working in private hospitals, who hold administrative and marketing positions at the upper and middle levels. The data were analyzed using the statistical program (SPSS V24) and the program (Amos-28) to test the hypothetical scheme and interpret the relationships between the variables. The research reached a number of important results, most notably the existence of a statistically significant effect of both marketing control and proactive marketing in enhancing sustainable competitive advantage. The results also demonstrated that proactive marketing plays a fundamental role in anticipating customer expectations and competitor movements, while marketing control emerges as an effective tool in evaluating marketing performance and analyzing an organization's internal and external environment. In light of these findings, the researcher presented a set of proposals that are consistent with the research topic and contribute to enhancing the capabilities of private hospitals to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.