The role of business analytics capabilities in bolstering firms’ agility and performance

• Published in: International journal of information management 2019-08, Vol.47, p.1-15
• Main Authors: Ashrafi, Amir, Zare Ravasan, Ahad, Trkman, Peter, Afshari, Samira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agility; Analytics; Business analytics; Environmental turbulence; Information quality; Innovative capability; Markets; Model testing; Partial least squares; Statistical data; Studies; Turbulence
• ISSN: 0268-4012; 1873-4707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.12.005

•Analytics capabilities improve agility by increasing information quality and innovative capability.•A strong link between business analytics and information quality and between information quality and firm agility.•The impact of analytics capabilities on innovation capability is stronger than that on information quality.•The positive effect of agility on performance is stronger in a turbulent environment.•The study used two respondents (both CEO and CIO) from each organization. Many companies invest considerable resources in developing Business Analytics (BA) capabilities to improve their performance. BA can affect performance in many different ways. This paper analyses how BA capabilities affect firms’ agility through information quality and innovative capability. Furthermore, it studies the moderating role of environmental turbulence, both technological and in the market. The proposed model was tested using statistical data from 154 firms with two respondents (CEO and CIO) from each firm. The data were analysed using Partial Least Squares (PLS)/Structured Equation Modelling (SEM). Our results indicate that BA capabilities strongly impact a firm’s agility through an increase in information quality and innovative capability. We also discuss that both market and technological turbulence moderate the influence of firms' agility on firms' performance.