ORGANIZATIONAL USE OF BIG DATA AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE – EXPLORATION OF ANTECEDENTS

The use of Big Data can hold considerable benefits for organizations, but there is as yet little research on the impacts of Big Data use on key variables such as competitive advantage. The antecedents to Big Data use aiming at competitive advantage are also poorly understood. Drawing from prior research on the ICT-competitiveness link, this research examined the relationship of organizational use of Big Data and competitive advantage – as well as certain hypothesized antecedents to this relationship. Data was collected from a nationwide survey in Japan which was addressed to Big Data users in private companies. The result shows that the competitiveness is influenced by the systematic and extensive use of Big Data in the organization, and top management understanding for Big Data use. Antecedents of systematic and extensive Big Data use were found to be the cross-functional activities of analysts, proactive attitude of users, secured data management, and human resources. Future research should strive t

Improving Agility Using Big Data Analytics: The Role of Democratization Culture

Background: Big data analytics (BDA) is considered an enabler of organizational agility because it helps firms to sense market-based changes and improve decision making in a more informed and timely manner. However, in reality, only a handful of firms have achieved improvement in their outcomes by using BDA. To address this inconsistency, our study explores the conditions under which BDA use translates into agility. We particularly focus on organizational culture because in the pursuit of agility, culture is emphasized as a source of stability that allows firms to successfully adapt to the changing environment. Therefore, by assuming organizational culture as a contextual factor, this study examines the moderating effect of organizational culture on the link between BDA use and agility. Method: We employ a concept from data democratization called “democratization culture,” which values the willingness to share information and the acceptance of diversity. We also adopt collectivistic culture for comparison with democratization culture. Further, BDA use is decomposed into advanced and basic use based on the functions and BDA types. A model is proposed and empirically validated through survey data collected from 304 senior-level managers. Results: Our findings suggest that the moderating effects of democratization culture on agility are different depending on whether it is combined with advanced or basic BDA use. Conclusions: This study provides initial empirical evidence that contributes to the scarce research on the role of organizational culture in the link between BDA use and agility. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol12/iss2/2

The Moderating Role of Democratization Culture: Improving Agility through the Use of Big Data Analytics

Big data analytics (BDA) is considered an enabler of agility by helping organizations perform more informed and faster decision making. To achieve agility, firms need a backbone of stability, such as organizational culture. However, there is a dearth of research examining the relationship among agility, BDA use and organizational culture. In this regard, considering increasing attention given to data democratization in business, this paper introduces ‘democratization culture’ which values sharing of knowledge and acceptance of diversity. Assuming organizational culture as a contextual factor, our research examines the moderating effect of democratization culture on the relationship between BDA use and agility. Also, BDA use is classified into advanced and basic use based on functions and BDA types. Research model is empirically validated through data collected from 304 senior-level managers, confirming that democratization culture has different moderating effects, depending on whether agility is influenced by advanced or basic use of BDA

Effects of User IT Capabilities and Organized Big Data Analytics on Competitive Advantage

information technology (IT) in order to take advantage of the potential of data for business objectives. While users have received attention in many ways, we note that the capability literature has focused more on the IT supply side. We argue that user capabilities have moved to an integral position in firm competitive advantage, and call them “User IT Capabilities” (UIC). A survey was conducted to collect data from Japanese organizations, and a total valid sample of 1,170 respondents involved in big data use was extracted. The findings show the effect of UIC on the performance of big data analytics and firm competitiveness, mediated by the variable of organized big data analytics (OBDA). The direct effects are shown to be valid irrespective of company size, although the levels of UIC and OBDA are higher in larger firms

Impacts of Online Emotional Advertisement on Customer Behavior Moderated by Brand Attachment

Emotional advertisement has recently caught attention as an effective tool of marketing communication. However, this research has been scarce in the online context. This research investigates the impact of online emotional advertisement on customer behavior with the moderator of brand attachment. Since brand attachment reflects certain conditions of the emotional state of consumers, it is assumed to be related to the effect of emotional appeal in advertising. We showed three types (emotional, informational, and mixed) of online movie advertisements of two items to Japanese undergraduate students, and conducted two questionnaires: one on the brand attachment and the other on purchase intention and engagement behavior. Results demonstrated that online emotional advertisement impacted both engagement behavior and purchase intention, while online informational one did so only on the purchase intention. The moderating effect of brand attachment was confirmed only in online emotional advertisements of one item on engagement behavior

The Role of Learning Culture in Big Data Analytics

While big data analytics (BDA) is known to help firms better understand their market and develop competitiveness, only a few can achieve business value through it. This issue is often blamed on the poor ability of most firms to translate BDA-based insights into action. Our study helps firms address this issue by proposing “learning culture” that encourages not only acquisition of knowledge but also behavior change, thereby translating knowledge into action. To do so, we apply learning culture to BDA context to assess applicability of existing dimensions of learning culture and also explore new potential dimensions. We validated our research through extensive literature reviews and in-depth interviews with nine firms. Consequently, we confirmed applicability of existing dimensions and discovered a new dimension: “learning of ignorance.” We expect our findings to serve as a step toward “BDA learning culture” that encourages organization members to learn and adapt to BDA-based knowledge

Chief Information Officer (CIO) Leadership in Crisis Situations: Subordinate Stories from the Japan Earthquake Crisis

Two years after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake Disaster that occurred on March 11 on 2011, and the subsequent nuclear plant failure at Fukushima, organizations are rethinking their business continuity plans to accommodate large-scale crises. Yet Information Technology (IT) functions may benefit from lessons other than the technical or procedural. People leadership, lauded as an important skill in emergencies, has received insufficient attention in IT function crisis response. This descriptive, case-based research examined the leadership of CIOs during and after the Japan earthquake disaster, using the transformational leadership approach as a theoretical lens. Our data originates from interviews and questionnaires to 3 CIOs and 4 of their subordinates in 3 large companies in Japan, and gives an account how the direct reports of CIOs evaluate the leadership of the CIOs in this crisis situation. While transformational leadership by IT managers has received praise, our results suggest that transformational leadership may also be applicable in crisis situations. We contribute one description of how transformational leadership is viewed in the IT function in a situation requiring agility. We also raise several questions and possibilities for further research in this area

Understanding the Role of Chief Data Officers: Insights from Japanese Companies

Big data has become a valuable resource for organizations to gain sustainable competitiveness. To harness the full value, companies are appointing the chief data officer (CDO) as a new C-level role, and the numbers are rapidly increasing. In addition, empirical research in this field is quite limited, and their roles remain unclear. To address this gap, we conducted five interviews with CDOs across different industries and presented their positioning and responsibilities through the CDO profile. We identified that the CDO’s primary role was to realize a data-driven company by establishing data governance and platforms in the first place and then promoting enterprise-wide data analytics and utilization. We also indicated that the CDO focused on enhancing big data analytics capabilities, including data-related human resource development. Through this research, we contribute to laying the foundation for understanding this new C-level executive and how companies should make the most of CDOs’ value

Co-Purchase Analysis by Hierarchical Network Structure

A vast increase in computing power has enabled Social Network Analysis (SNA) to find its application in a variety of disciplines beyond its traditional use as a tool for sociologists to understand human networks. A few researchers in marketing has begun to be interested in applying SNA to investigate network structures formed of co- purchase relationships among products in the market. However, prior research only stopped at examining overall characteristics of the network, limiting its analytical capability to limited evaluation criteria such as density and degree contribution of the entire network. This research extends the SNA-based co-purchase analysis framework by incorporating the inter-community and intra-community characteristics of the network. We tested our framework by applying it to the analysis of annual ID-POS data on 36,981 customers of a supermarket in Fukuoka, Japan. Results demonstrated the capability of the framework to identify relationships among product communities and intra-community roles of products

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF DATA GOVERNANCE: THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTABILITIES

Data governance has recently received attention as a way to improve company-wide data quality management. As with other governance concepts, accountabilities is central to data governance- roles and responsibilities must be introduced that facilitate the processing of data according to company needs. Marketing is one business area where data-driven decision-making has shown promise, and which is likely to benefit from company-wide data governance. However, empirical investigations of data governance are still limited. This research analysed survey data in Japan that investigated the hypothesized relationships of accountabilities in data governance to perceived performance in marketing activities via the intermediate variable of data utilization. The research found positive links between these variables, showing one avenue by which data governance is effective. However, it should be noted that in the case of larger companies, this link was confirmed only between accountabilities and data utilization. In practical terms, the result can be used to promote data governance in companies. Future research potential is suggested at the end of the paper