Big Data in Supply Chains: Achieving Supply Chain Innovation Through Capabilities

Big data has revolutionized the industry and has become an important source of competitive advantage and firm performance. In order to be able to leverage big data to achieve higher innovation in the supply chain, a number of complementary resources are essential to achieve the competitive advantage of the incumbent firm. We propose that supply chain innovation is dependent on firm’s big data analytics capabilities and this relationship is mediated by supply chain ambidexterity mitigating capabilities (agility and adaptability) and moderated by technology uncertainty. The data collected from 300 manufacturing firms operating in Pakistan confirm our hypotheses. Based on the results, it is suggested that both types of capabilities necessary for mitigating supply chain ambidexterity are critical for firms to realize better innovation in the supply chain. Furthermore, technology uncertainty moderates the relationship between big data analytic capabilities and supply chain innovation. This study extends the current literature on the importance of digital technologies especially big data analytics capabilities in improving the innovation outcomes of supply chains. This study confirms that big data projects may yield positive outcomes, if supply chain ambidexterity is mitigated through building capabilities of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability and that uncertainties in technologies surrounding manufacturing firms further strengthen this relationship.