Exploring the complementary effects of business analytics capabilities and π-shaped skills on innovation outcomes

ABSTRACT

While it is clear that business analytics (BA), on average, adds value to firms, it is less clear why some firms perform better than others in leveraging their data assets. To a large degree, prior research has attributed such differences to the human factor. Nevertheless, there is still limited knowledge concerning what impact competencies of key personnel have on generating value from BA initiatives, and to what extent such outcomes complement a firm’s investment in BA. To examine these questions, this study explores the complementary relationship between BA capabilities and π-shaped skills. It posits that the concurrent presence of both indirectly influences innovation outcomes by fostering a data-driven culture. We build on a sample of 185 individuals with supervisory positions in Turkey to unpack this process. The findings revealed that BA capabilities and π-shaped skills influence a firm’s data-driven culture, which in turn impacts the firms’ marketing innovation, and subsequently its innovative performance. That is, data-driven culture and firms’ marketing innovation are relevant underlying serial mechanisms by which BA capabilities and π-shaped skills influence innovative performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Big data
• Business analytics
• data-oriented culture
• Pi-shaped skills
• Innovative performance
• Socio-materiality theory

Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Slovenian Research Agency (www.arrs.gov.si) within the research program P5–0441. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).