Positioning big data analytics capabilities towards financial service agility

PurposeEnterprises are increasingly taking actionable steps to transform existing business models through digital technologies for service transformation such as big data analytics (BDA). BDA capabilities offer financial institutions to source financial data, analyse data, insight and store such data and information on collaborative platforms for a quick decision-making process. Accordingly, this study identifies how BDA capabilities can be deployed to provide significant improvement for financial services agility.Design/methodology/approachThe study relied on survey data from 485 banking professionals' perspectives with BDA usage, IT capability development and financial service agility. The PLS-SEM technique was used to evaluate the underlying relationship and the applicability of the research framework proposed.FindingsBased on the empirical test from this study, distinctive BDA usage grounded on the concept of IT capability viewpoint proof that financial service agility could be enhanced provided enterprises develop technical capabilities alongside other relevant resources.Practical implicationsThe study further highlights the need for financial service managers to identify BDA technologies such as data mining, query and reporting, data visualisation, predictive modelling, streaming analytics, video analytics and voice analytics to focus on financial knowledge gathering and market observation. Financial managers can also deploy BDA tools to develop a strategic road map for data management, data transferability and knowledge discovery for customised financial products.Originality/valueThis study is a useful contribution to the burgeoning discussion with emerging technologies such as BDA implication to improving enterprises operations.

How Internal IT Capability Affects Open Innovation Performance: From Dynamic Capability Perspective

Information technology (IT) and open innovation has been one of hot topic in existing research respectively. However, there are lack empirical research on inner mechanism of internal IT capability affecting open innovation performance. According to dynamic capability theory, this paper puts internal IT capability, internal knowledge integration, firm social capital, and open innovation performance into a theoretical model. Through 232 surveys, the results indicate that internal knowledge integration plays a mediator role in the effect of internal IT capability on open innovation performance. Meanwhile, the relationship between internal IT capability and internal knowledge integration can be positively moderated by firm social capital. This study extends the research on open innovation and IT business value, and provides theoretical direction for practice.

How information technology capability influences organizational agility: empirical evidences from Indian banking industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight a precise investigation of the relationship between information technology (IT) capability and organizational agility along with the moderating impact of environmental factors on this association. Design/methodology/approach Pre-tested structured questionnaires were administered during a matched-pair field survey to collect primary responses from 300 business and IT personnel working in various public and privately owned banking groups functioning in India. The structural equation modeling approach has been used for data analysis. Findings The two-folded research findings are first, IT capability enables organizational agility (studied as business process and market responsive agility), while IT capability has more effect on market responsive agility. Second, the environmental factors (studied as environmental diversity and hostility) possess a significant effect on the IT-agility relationship and, thereby, suggest that a more diverse and less hostile environment is required for the firms to build up superior IT capability for realizing enhanced agility. Originality/value The authors have studied IT capability as a first-order factor, organizational agility and environmental factors as second-order factors and by meticulously examining their critical dimensions this study greatly contributes to the existing IT-agility literature. The derived inferences provide various implications for the bank and IT managers to emphasize on superior IT capability for generating enhanced organizational agility.

Information technology (IT) governance and IT capability to realize firm performance: enabling role of agility and innovative capability

PurposeWith the ever-growing turbulent business setting, there is a great interest to study how a firm tailors information technology (IT) capability to shape agility and innovation capability to stay ahead of the competition. This study examines how IT governance and IT capability can be tailored to achieve firm performance through agility and innovative capability in a turbulent environment.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the dynamic capability theory, this study based on the primary survey data of 253 responses from senior IT and business executives in China proves the hypothesized relationship in the proposed model.FindingsThis study shows that the IT governance mechanism positively impacts on IT-enabled dynamic capabilities. Further, IT-enabled dynamic capabilities positively impact on agility and innovative capability that in turn support to achieve firm performance. The environmental uncertainty is only significant in the IT-enabled dynamic capabilities–business process agility relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study suggests corporate leaders and executives to better exploit their resources and tailor IT capabilities in the turbulent environment. Further, this study offers theoretical and practical implications.Originality/valueThis study proposes ways for executives to examine the multifaceted nature of environmental uncertainty to achieve agility, innovation and firm performance rather than simply investing in IT.

How to be agile: the distinctive roles of IT capabilities for knowledge management and process integration

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how IT capabilities for knowledge management and process integration can build a firm's agile process capabilities for sensing, strategic decision and responding. The study also investigates how the three agile capabilities affect firm performance in different competitive environments.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a large-scale field survey with firms in the United States. Survey invitations were sent to business executives of the target firms. A total of 254 complete samples were collected for our hypotheses test.FindingsThe results confirm the overall significant roles of IT capabilities in the three agile capabilities. The results further reveal that the IT capability for knowledge management has a higher influence on sensing capability, while the IT capability for process integration has a higher influence on responding capability. Moreover, strategic decision and responding capabilities are more important in the high market competition. However, in the low market competition, sensing capability becomes more important while responding capability demonstrates a negative impact on firm performance.Originality/valueThis study helps both academics and practitioners better understand a firm's IT-agility-performance mechanism. Particularly, our findings guide how to achieve agile capabilities and what to focus on under the different levels of market competition.