Strategic Value Creation through Big Data Analytics Capabilities: A Configurational Approach

Despite the documented potential of Big Data Analytics Capabilities (BDAC), it is by no means clear how they support the capacity of firms to purposefully create, extend, or modify their resource bases, i.e., dynamic capabilities (DC). This study extends current literature by exploring and elucidating various contingent big data capabilities, resources, and conditions that lead to the formation of these DCs in today's turbulent business environment. We use a qualitative approach using a cross-interview study method. Hence, we collected data through semi-structured interviews with field domain experts. In total, 27 interviews were held with key and senior informants from different firms. Co-authors analyzed the obtained data through the use of qualitative coding techniques. Our results show that there are various contingent BDAC resource solutions that drive, moderate, and condition the development of DCs. These outcomes also show that no single antecedent condition explains DCs in practice. These insights are important for firms that are becoming more data-driven. Outcomes are valuable for practice as firm executives now have insight into the process and main BDA capabilities they can focus on while planning, initiating, and evolving big data analytics projects and their digital business strategies.

[1]  Yi Wang,et al.  IT capability and organizational performance: the roles of business process agility and environmental factors , 2014, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[2]  J. Alberto Espinosa,et al.  Big Data: Issues and Challenges Moving Forward , 2013, 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[3]  Marta Bańbura,et al.  A Look into the Factor Model Black Box: Publication Lags and the Role of Hard and Soft Data in Forecasting GDP , 2007, SSRN Electronic Journal.

[4]  Michael R. Wade,et al.  The Resource-Based View and Information Systems Research: Review, Extension, and Suggestions for Future Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[5]  H. Russell Bernard,et al.  Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 2000 .

[6]  W. Currie,et al.  A model for unpacking big data analytics in high-frequency trading , 2017 .

[7]  S. Winter.  Understanding dynamic capabilities , 2003 .

[8]  Michail N. Giannakos,et al.  Big data analytics capabilities: a systematic literature review and research agenda , 2017, Information Systems and e-Business Management.

[9]  Peer C. Fiss.  A set-theoretic approach to organizational configurations , 2007 .

[10]  Richard Makadok.  Toward a synthesis of the resource‐based and dynamic‐capability views of rent creation , 2001 .

[11]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Dynamic capabilities : understanding strategic change in organizations , 2007 .

[12]  Shahriar Akter,et al.  How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment , 2016 .

[13]  Ioanna D. Constantiou,et al.  New games, new rules: big data and the changing context of strategy , 2015, J. Inf. Technol..

[14]  J. Alberto Espinosa,et al.  The Big Data Analytics Gold Rush: A Research Framework for Coordination and Governance , 2016, 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS).

[15]  Michail N. Giannakos,et al.  Big Data and Strategy: A research Framework , 2016, MCIS.

[16]  Paulo B. Góes,et al.  Editor's comments: big data and IS research , 2014 .

[17]  Rogier van de Wetering,et al.  Dynamic Enterprise Architecture Capabilities: Conceptualization and Validation , 2019, BIS.

[18]  Paul P. Tallon,et al.  The Information Artifact in IT Governance: Toward a Theory of Information Governance , 2013, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[19]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[20]  Oliver Schilke.  On the Contingent Value of Dynamic Capabilities for Competitive Advantage: The Nonlinear Moderating Effect of Environmental Dynamism , 2014 .

[21]  Thomas J. Steenburgh,et al.  Motivating Salespeople: What Really Works , 2012, Harvard business review.

[22]  Paul P. Tallon.  Corporate Governance of Big Data: Perspectives on Value, Risk, and Cost , 2013, Computer.

[23]  Torsten Eymann,et al.  Digitalization: Opportunity and Challenge for the Business and Information Systems Engineering Community , 2017, Business & Information Systems Engineering.

[24]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  Big data: the management revolution. , 2012, Harvard business review.

[25]  Amir Pezeshkan,et al.  An empirical assessment of the dynamic capabilities–performance relationship , 2016 .

[26]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges , 2007 .

[27]  Pamela Baxter,et al.  Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers , 2008 .

[28]  Rogier van de Wetering,et al.  Examining the relationship between a hospital's IT infrastructure capability and digital capabilities: a resource-based perspective , 2018, AMCIS.

[29]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Information technology-enabled dynamic capabilities and their indirect effect on competitive performance: Findings from PLS-SEM and fsQCA , 2017 .

[30]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[31]  A. Gunasekaran,et al.  Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain investigations for research and applications , 2016 .

[32]  Jinghua Xiao,et al.  Resource Structuring or Capability Building? An Empirical Study of the Business Value of Information Technology , 2012, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[33]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Purchasing alignment under multiple contingencies: a configuration theory approach , 2015, Ind. Manag. Data Syst..

[34]  Guido Schryen,et al.  Revisiting IS business value research: what we already know, what we still need to know, and how we can get there , 2013, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[35]  Arch G. Woodside,et al.  Applying complexity theory to deepen service dominant logic: Configural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome assessments of professional services for personal transformations , 2014 .

[36]  Michail N. Giannakos,et al.  Big data and business analytics ecosystems: paving the way towards digital transformation and sustainable societies , 2018, Inf. Syst. E Bus. Manag..

[37]  Robert K. Yin,et al.  Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods , 2017 .

[38]  Varun Grover,et al.  Business Value of IT: An Essay on Expanding Research Directions to Keep up with the Times , 2008, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[39]  M. Adam Mahmood,et al.  Information Technology Investments and Organizational Productivity and Performance: An Empirical Investigation , 2005, J. Organ. Comput. Electron. Commer..

[40]  T. Davenport,et al.  Data scientist: the sexiest job of the 21st century. , 2012, Harvard business review.

[41]  Amrit Tiwana,et al.  Complementarities Between Organizational IT Architecture and Governance Structure , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[42]  Varun Grover,et al.  Creating Strategic Business Value from Big Data Analytics: A Research Framework , 2018, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[43]  Michail N. Giannakos,et al.  Information Governance in the Big Data Era: Aligning Organizational Capabilities , 2018, HICSS.

[44]  Shahriar Akter,et al.  How ‘Big Data’ Can Make Big Impact: Findings from a Systematic Review and a Longitudinal Case Study , 2015 .

[45]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[46]  Michael Meskon,et al.  The resource-based theory of competitive advantage : implications for strategy formulation , 2018 .

[47]  Christine Nadel,et al.  Case Study Research Design And Methods , 2016 .

[48]  Shahriar Akter,et al.  Big data analytics and firm performance: Effects of dynamic capabilities , 2017 .

[49]  Joey F. George,et al.  Toward the development of a big data analytics capability , 2016, Inf. Manag..

[50]  Z. Irani,et al.  Critical analysis of Big Data challenges and analytical methods , 2017 .

[51]  M. Wade,et al.  Review: the resource-based view and information systems research: review, extension, and suggestions for future research , 2004 .

[52]  M. Janssen,et al.  Factors influencing big data decision-making quality , 2017 .

[53]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Driving organizational sustainability-oriented innovation capabilities: a complex adaptive systems perspective , 2017 .

[54]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Big Data Analytics Capabilities and Innovation: The Mediating Role of Dynamic Capabilities and Moderating Effect of the Environment , 2019, British Journal of Management.

[55]  J. Ross,et al.  Digital Business Transformation and the Changing Role of the IT Function , 2017 .

[56]  Patrick Mikalef,et al.  Big data analytics and firm performance: Findings from a mixed-method approach , 2019, Journal of Business Research.

[57]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Validation in Information Systems Research: A State-of-the-Art Assessment , 2001, MIS Q..

[58]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[59]  Siegfried P. Gudergan,et al.  Heterogeneity in dynamic capability configurations: Equifinality and strategic performance , 2016 .

[60]  Veda C. Storey,et al.  Business Intelligence and Analytics: From Big Data to Big Impact , 2012, MIS Q..

[61]  Elena Pessot,et al.  Cultivating business model agility through focused capabilities: A multiple case study , 2017 .

[62]  E. Brynjolfsson,et al.  Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance , 2000 .

[63]  Tommi Tapanainen,et al.  Organizational Use of Big Data and Competitive Advantage - Exploration of Antecedents , 2014, PACIS.

[64]  Ari Jantunen,et al.  Dynamic Capabilities, Operational Changes, and Performance Outcomes in the Media Industry , 2018 .

[65]  Anandhi S. Bharadwaj,et al.  A Resource-Based Perspective on Information Technology Capability and Firm Performance: An Empirical Investigation , 2000, MIS Q..

[66]  Frantz Rowe,et al.  Strategizing information systems-enabled organizational transformation: A transdisciplinary review and new directions , 2012, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[67]  Matthew B. Miles,et al.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook , 1994 .

[68]  Amir Pezeshkan,et al.  Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Performance: A Meta‐Analytic Evaluation and Extension , 2016 .

[69]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems , 1987, MIS Q..

[70]  Sunil Erevelles,et al.  Big Data consumer analytics and the transformation of marketing , 2016 .

[71]  P. Drnevich,et al.  Clarifying the conditions and limits of the contributions of ordinary and dynamic capabilities to relative firm performance , 2011 .

[72]  A. Braganza,et al.  Resource management in big data initiatives: Processes and dynamic capabilities , 2017 .

[73]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  The qualitative interview in IS research: Examining the craft , 2007, Inf. Organ..

[74]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  Research Commentary - Seeking the Configurations of Digital Ecodynamics: It Takes Three to Tango , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[75]  J. Barney.  Resource-based theories of competitive advantage: A ten-year retrospective on the resource-based view , 2001 .

[76]  Paul A. Pavlou,et al.  From IT Leveraging Competence to Competitive Advantage in Turbulent Environments: The Case of New Product Development , 2006, Inf. Syst. Res..