Big data analytics-enabled dynamic capabilities and firm performance: examining the roles of marketing ambidexterity and environmental dynamism.

PurposeDrawing from dynamic capability (DC) theory, this study aims to investigate how big data analytics (BDA)-enabled dynamic capabilities (DCs) prompt firm performance. This study proposes that BDA-enabled DCs lead firms toward simultaneous exploration and exploitation of new knowledge about markets and products (i.e. marketing ambidexterity) which in turn improves firms' market and financial performance. This study also examines if environmental dynamism strengthens the aforementioned relationship.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses survey questionnaire and data were collected in the form of two heterogeneous samples from Turkey and Pakistan. Partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsResults reveal that BDA-enabled DCs positively affect both dimensions of marketing ambidexterity (exploration and exploitation). Marketing exploration and exploitation have positive effects on firms' market and financial performance. Results also demonstrate that environmental dynamism moderates the link between BDA-enabled DCs and firms' marketing exploitation. The moderating effect for BDA-enabled DCs and firms' marketing exploration was not consistent across both samples.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature of BDA and marketing ambidexterity in the light of DC theory in a way that when and how the marketing ambidexterity, derived from BDA-enabled DCs, has a positive impact on firm performance. Moreover, findings imply that the development and enhancement of BDA-enabled DCs facilitate firms to calibrate marketing exploitation and exploration to seek new knowledge about markets and products and using such knowledge to achieve superior performance.Originality/valueThe novelty of present study is development of dynamic capabilities-based framework which sheds light on the role of big data for sensing, seizing and (re)configuring firms' resources to develop marketing ambidextrous capabilities in order to stay successful. From methodological perspective, this study uses two heterogeneous samples to assess robustness of results for ensuring greater generalizability and theoretical resonance.