Due to the large consumption and the number of population, emerging markets have created significant opportunities and challenges for businesses. Firms operating in these markets are required to enhance their capabilities in order to survive in this challenging market environment. Regarding this issue, scholars in marketing and strategic management fields have recognized market orientation, dynamic capabilities, and marketing capabilities are main drivers for the success of the firms operating business in the changing environment. Nevertheless, conventions of theories formerly developed for advanced markets where are relatively stable and efficient. Hence, this paper aims to investigate market orientation, dynamic capabilities, and marketing capabilities in Thailand in order to explore the application of existing theories in the context of emerging markets. Thailand is selected due to its strong characteristic of political instability which creates critical impacts on market environment. Qualitative in-depth interview method is applied in this study to investigate how local and foreign firms make use of market orientation and manage their capabilities in line with organization strategies to stay competitive in the changing environment. The findings from twelve firms demonstrate that market orientation practices and management of organization capabilities were applied into firms’ strategies by different levels, approaches, and activities. These differences can be explained by firm sizes and the nature of the firm. Theories expansions and emerging notions are stated in the paper. Managers can learn how market orientation, dynamic capabilities, and marketing capabilities enhance the firms’ business practices in order to succeed in emerging markets, where enormous business opportunities are attractive, but institutional environment is always challenging.