Business intelligence and analytics as a driver of dynamic and operational capabilities in times of intense macroeconomic turbulence

Abstract

Despite growing investments in Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A), the business value generation process associated with the adoption of these technologies is still unclear. Consequently, managers face difficulties in justifying such initiatives and subsequently evaluating their results. For companies that operate in extremely turbulent environments, the outcomes of BI&A investments may be even harder to estimate. In this study, we propose and statistically evaluate a causal model that connects the availability of BI&A resources and capabilities in a company to its operational marketing capabilities. Marketing processes are critical for the generation of innovations in products and services, and operational revenues, and thereby, for a firm's performance and competitiveness. In order to assess our model, we applied structural equation modeling techniques to data collected in multiple units of a large Brazilian telecommunications company during the worst economic and institutional crisis faced by the country. Our results suggest that the dynamic capabilities of a company fully mediates the positive effect of BI&A resources and capabilities on its marketing capabilities. In contrast to what is usually found in the literature, turbulence did not moderate the effect of dynamic capabilities on marketing capabilities.