How does big data analytics capability affect firm performance? Unveiling the role of organisational resilience and environmental dynamism

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a dynamic environment, organisations are increasingly compelled to utilise big data analytics (BDA) to develop organisational resilience, which will help them weather disruptions and gain competitiveness. By investigating 213 Chinese firms across a diverse array of industries, this study seeks to uncover the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which BDA capability affects firm performance. Drawing on the organisational capabilities-based theory and information technology-enabled organisational capabilities perspective, we both theoretically and empirically verify that two types of organisational resilience (i.e., proactive resilience and reactive resilience) mediate the relationship between BDA capability and firm performance. Our findings reveal that environmental dynamism positively moderates the impact of BDA capability on reactive resilience and strengthens the positive mediation effect of reactive resilience on the relationship between BDA capability and firm performance. This study contributes to the information systems literature by theoretically and empirically clarifying the pivotal roles of proactive resilience and reactive resilience as mediating mechanisms and by describing the contingent effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between BDA capability and performance. The results provide new insights into how managers deploy BDA to achieve superior performance in a dynamic environment.