If the resources that a
firm possesses and exploits are critical in competitive settings, “big data” is
surely one of the most important resources to be held up for scrutiny in
decades. Studies to date suggest that in spite of universal acknowledgement
that these resources could be critical in a variety of mission-critical firm
activities, they are currently under-deployed. Why is this the case? We argue
that, because of the lack of prior, definitive theoretical/empirical studies, managers
do not realize that the management of big data has a major influence on marketing
capabilities and subsequently on firm performance. Using the resource-based
view of the firm (RBV) as our primary theory base, we go on to theorize that
business strategy (low cost or differentiating) has a moderating impact on
these mainstream effects. Our approach was to find empirical evidence for this
mediated-moderated relationship via a field study of 301 large firms across a
wide variety of industries. Findings are generally supportive of our contentions,
although the results of some moderation are counter-intuitive.