Abstract: The inheritance of time-honored brands is a long-term task and all enterprises concerned must respond promptly to environmental changes to avoid stagnation. This study emphasizes that the key to sustainable development of time-honored brands lies in the construction of their enduring marketing capabilities. However, research on the cultivation and effects of sustainable marketing capabilities for time-honored brands remains insufficient. Therefore, this study focused on sustainable marketing capability and integrated its underlying reasons and their outcomes. Using enterprises behind Yunnan's time-honored brands as the research context, this study primarily surveyed managers and employees from 52 time-honored enterprises in Yunnan Province and developed a research model. The findings reveal that active ambidextrous learning significantly facilitates the development of sustainable marketing capabilities and enhances enterprise performance. Sustainable marketing capability mediates the relationship between ambidextrous learning and enterprise performance. The optimization of policy and market environments further strengthens the positive impact of sustainable marketing capability on enterprise performance. This study provides methods for cultivating sustainable marketing capabilities in time-honored enterprises and offers valuable insights into maintaining competitiveness and implementing long-term management strategies.

Key words: time-honored brand of Yunnan, exploratory learning, exploitative learning, sustainable marketing capability, enterprise performance