Reconceptualizing synergy to explain the value of business analytics systems
Authors: Someh, Ida; Shanks, Graeme; Davern, Michael
Journal: Journal of Information Technology (2019)
<jats:p>How can we use synergy to explain the value created by business analytics systems? In this article, we conceptualize and operationalize two important aspects of synergy: namely, the synergistic relationship and the synergistic outcome. We explore the enablers and mechanisms that are involved in a synergistic relationship between business analytics systems and customer relationship management systems and define it as the ability of systems to work together, span their boundaries and complement each other. Synergistic outcomes are the new business analytics–enabled customer relationship management systems that emerge from the synergistic relationship between business analytics systems and customer relationship management systems. Taking a whole system perspective, business analytics–enabled customer relationship management systems comprise the components and the emergent properties that arise from their interaction (e.g. the ability to cross-sell and up-sell based on advanced computational methods), in which the emergent properties are new because they do not exist in the individual components. We develop a research model that uses Synergistic Relationship and Synergistic Ou…