Exploring the relationship between big data analytics capability and competitive performance: The mediating roles of dynamic and operational capabilities

By Patrick Mikalef, John Krogstie, Ilias O. Pappas, Paul A. Pavlou. Information Manager (The), 2020

926 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract A central question for information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners is if, and how, big data can help attain a competitive advantage. To address this question, this study draws on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities view, and on recent literature on big data analytics, and examines the indirect relationship between a firm’s big data analytics capability (BDAC) and competitive performance. The study extends existing research by proposing that BDACs enable firms to generate insight that can help strengthen their dynamic capabilities, which, in turn, positively impact marketing and technological capabilities. To test our proposed research model, we used survey data from 202 chief information officers and IT managers working in Norwegian firms. By means of partial least squares structural equation modeling, results show that a strong BDAC can help firms build a competitive advantage. This effect is not direct but fully mediated by dynamic capabilities, which exerts a positive and significant effect on two types of operational capabilities: marketing and technological capabilities. The findings suggest that IS researchers should look beyond direct effects of big data investments and shift their attention on how a BDAC can be leveraged to enable and support organizational capabilities.

Subfields: Management Information Systems, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d79a4d4eda1499dde949ada83fb64f592793e608

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In Management Information Systems

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Strategy and Management

Citations in the corpus

The Effects of Digital Transformation on Firm Performance: Evidence from China’s Manufacturing Sector (2021, background): “Under the management of a unified digital system or platform, the information flows efficiently within organizations, which helps improve the efficiency of communication between departments and processes and removes unnecessary links [44].”
Exploring the impact of big data analytics capabilities on business model innovation: The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation (2021, positive): “In other words, it stresses the role of BDAC as an enabling factor for firms to shape strategies based on the “fusion between technology and business ” , rather than a “ subordinate of business strategy ” (Mikalef et al., 2020, p. 11).”
Digital transforming capability and performance: a microfoundational perspective (2020, background): “Other studies reveal some of the microfoundations of digital capabilities, but they focus either on operational capabilities and/or specific digital capabilities, and not dynamic capabilities (e.g. Akter et al., 2016; Wamba et al., 2017; Mikalef et al., 2019).”
The smart circular economy: A digital-enabled circular strategies framework for manufacturing companies (2020, background): “To date, efforts supporting information systems research primarily focused on explaining the mechanisms through which BA leads to competitive performance, for example, through the mediating role of dynamic and operational capabilities (Mikalef, Krogstie, Pappas, & Pavlou, 2019).”