Removing silos to enable data-driven decisions: The importance of marketing and IT knowledge, cooperation, and information quality

Abstract

Business decision-making increasingly requires that the information technology (IT) and marketing functions work together. Despite their distinct objectives, marketing managers need improved access to data to drive strategy. Based on an absorptive-capacity perspective, this study examines how marketing and IT business knowledge at the executive level affect decision-making. Results indicate that IT business knowledge has a direct, positive effect on data-driven decision-making, and marketing business knowledge does not. In addition, information quality and marketing/IT cooperation have differential moderating effects.