How Business Analytics Systems Provide Benefits and Contribute to Firm Performance?

Organisations invest in Business analytics (BA) systems to improve firm performance and gain competitive advantage. BA systems use advanced analytical tools and techniques to analyse organisational data and generate insights. Decision makers at different levels of the organisations leverage the insights and take competitive actions. In this paper, we utilise Resource-based View (RBV) and business value of IT literature to develop a research model to explain the firm performance impacts of BA systems in customer relations. The research model proposes that BA capability creates informational benefits in customer relations using two pathways: (1) Direct creation of informational benefits, and (2) Indirect creation of informational benefits through developing higher-order Analytical CRM capability. Informational benefits once created, contribute to superior firm performance. The research model is evaluated using survey data in Large US-based organisations

Realising Synergy in Business Analytics Enabled Systems

The synergy of IT resources with other organisational resources is important in achieving operational and strategic benefits. The synergistic interaction between IT resources and other organisational resources leads to the emergence of new IT-enabled organisational resources, which are capable of generating significant organisational value. The aim of this paper is to understand how this synergy is realised between IT resources and other organisational resources. Based on a synthesis of relevant literature, we propose six enablers and mechanisms which lead to synergy. To assess the face validity of these enablers and mechanisms, we conducted ten one-hour interviews with Business Analytics (BA) experts. The results assisted us in refining and contextualising the enablers and mechanisms for BA systems and led to a clear and comprehensive definition of synergy. The paper concludes with suggestions for empirical research to further refine our definition of synergy

Towards a reconceptualization of data in organizations: a literature review

Information Systems researchers have sought to demonstrate the strategic value of data in organizations through robust evidence. Over time, the ways data benefit organizations have evolved and become more diverse, yet definitions of data and their value propositions have not kept up and remain disconnected. The field still lacks clear understanding of various roles data play in organizations and how to define them. This paper presents a comprehensive review of related literature in the Information Systems and Management fields from the past two decades. We first conduct a systematic literature search and organize them into key research themes by the purpose of data use. We then propose a reconceptualization of data that takes into account their distinct features. Our aim is to provide an explanation for the unique nature of data and the diverse sources of their value in organizations

Enablers and Mechanisms: Practices for Achieving Synergy with Business Analytics

Business Analytics (BA) systems use advanced statistical and computational techniques to analyze organizational data and enable informed and insightful decision-making. BA systems interact with other organizational systems and if their relationship is synergistic, together they create higher-order BA-enabled organizational systems, which have the potential to create value and gain competitive advantage. In this paper, we focus on the enablers and mechanisms of synergy between BA and other organizational systems and identify a set of organizational practices that underlie the emergence of BA-enabled organizational systems. We use a case study involving a large IT firm to identify the organizational practices associated with synergistic relationships that lead to the emergence of higher-order BA-enabled organizational systems

Data Liquidity: Conceptualization, Measurement and Determinants

Despite the rhetoric that “data is the new oil” organizations continue to face challenges in data monetization, and we don’t have a reliable way to measure how easily data assets can be reused and recombined in value creation and appropriation efforts. Data asset liquidity is a critical, yet underexamined, prerequisite for data monetization initiatives. We contribute to the theorizing process by advancing a definition, conceptualization, and measurement of data liquidity as an asset level construct. Based on interviews with 95 Chief Data and Analytics Officers from 67 distinct large global organizations, we identify three determinants of data liquidity: inherent asset characteristics, structural asset characteristics, and asset environment characteristics. We theorize the existence of equifinal configurations that yield liquid data assets, configurations that should prove helpful to academics and practitioners seeking to understand data liquidity and its impact on firms’ data monetization efforts as well as society at large

THE ROLE OF SYNERGY IN USING ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE FOR BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

Enterprise architecture (EA) provides an integrated representation of an organization’s current and desirable future business capabilities, processes, systems, data and IT infrastructure. EA can interact with and enhance other organizational capabilities, including business transformation capabilities. De-spite significant interest and investment in EA, there is little understanding of how EA can augment other organizational capabilities. In this research in progress paper, we focus on the role of EA in augmenting a firm’s business transformation capability. We conceptualize a synergistic relationship between EA and a firm’s business transformation capability and the emergent EA-enabled business transformation capability. We propose a research model that uses synergy and EA-enabled business transformation capability to explain how transformation outcomes and organizational benefits can be enhanced using EA. We argue that EA capability can lead to the exploitation of existing resources by sharing and reuse of assets and exploration of new capabilities by reconfiguring and integrating re-sources. At an organizational level, EA can increase flexibility, agility and business-IT alignment. The model forms the basis for planned mixed method empirical work combining case studies and a survey

Towards Ethical Big Data Artifacts: A Conceptual Design

Although Big Data generates many benefits for individuals, organizations and society, significant ethical issues are forcing governments to review their regulations so that citizens’ rights are protected. Given these ethical issues and a gradual increase of awareness about them, individuals are in need of new technical solutions to engage with organizations that extract value from Big Data. Currently, available solutions do not adequately accommodate the conflicting interests of individuals and organizations. In this paper, we propose a conceptual design for an artifact that will raise awareness amongst individuals about Big Data ethical issues and help to restore the power balance between individuals and organizations. Furthermore, we set forward a design agenda outlining future activities towards building and evaluating our proposed artifact. Our work is grounded in discourse ethics and stakeholder theory and intertwined with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR

The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die

It may be tempting for researchers to stick to incremental extensions of their current work to plan future research activities. Yet there is also merit in realizing the grand challenges in one's field. This paper presents an overview of the nine major research problems for the Business Process Management discipline. These challenges have been collected by an open call to the community, discussed and refined in a workshop setting, and described here in detail, including a motivation why these problems are worth investigating. This overview may serve the purpose of inspiring both novice and advanced scholars who are interested in the radical new ideas for the analysis, design, and management of work processes using information technology.</p

The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die

It may be tempting for researchers to stick to incremental extensions of their current work to plan future research activities. Yet there is also merit in realizing the grand challenges in one’s field. This paper presents an overview of the nine major research problems for the Business Process Management discipline. These challenges have been collected by an open call to the community, discussed and refined in a workshop setting, and described here in detail, including a motivation why these problems are worth investigating. This overview may serve the purpose of inspiring both novice and advanced scholars who are interested in the radical new ideas for the analysis, design, and management of work processes using information technology

The biggest business process management problems to solve before we die

It may be tempting for researchers to stick to incremental extensions of their current work to plan future research activities. Yet there is also merit in realizing the grand challenges in one's field. This paper presents an overview of the nine major research problems for the Business Process Management discipline. These challenges have been collected by an open call to the community, discussed and refined in a workshop setting, and described here in detail, including a motivation why these problems are worth investigating. This overview may serve the purpose of inspiring both novice and advanced scholars who are interested in the radical new ideas for the analysis, design, and management of work processes using information technology