Understanding the Relationship between Big Data Analytics Capabilities and Sustainable Performance: The Role of Strategic Agility and Firm Creativity

Abstract

The most successful organisations create businesses that can respond to sudden and unexpected changes in the market. The purpose of this research is to examine how big data analytics capabilities might, through strategic agility, impact on sustainable performance. We grounded our theoretical framework in two perspectives: the resource-based view and the dynamic capabilities view. In order to gather data from Saudi Arabian managers, we used the positivist methodology of a survey. Data were collected from 410 managers. The data were analysed using the SEM method. The findings indicated that big data analytics capabilities have a significant effect on economic, environmental, and social performance. They also revealed that strategic agility partially mediates the relationship between the capabilities of big data analytics and sustainable performance. Furthermore, the impact of big data analytics capabilities on strategic agility is stronger in a creative environment, while the strategic agility–sustainable performance relationship is more pronounced in more creative environments. The findings offer firms an insight into the actual benefits that big data analytics may generate and how firms may align the use of big data analytics with industrial conditions to foster sustainable performance.