The Moderating Role of Democratization Culture: Improving Agility through the Use of Big Data Analytics

Big data analytics (BDA) is considered an enabler of agility by helping organizations perform more informed and faster decision making. To achieve agility, firms need a backbone of stability, such as organizational culture. However, there is a dearth of research examining the relationship among agility, BDA use and organizational culture. In this regard, considering increasing attention given to data democratization in business, this paper introduces ‘democratization culture’ which values sharing of knowledge and acceptance of diversity. Assuming organizational culture as a contextual factor, our research examines the moderating effect of democratization culture on the relationship between BDA use and agility. Also, BDA use is classified into advanced and basic use based on functions and BDA types. Research model is empirically validated through data collected from 304 senior-level managers, confirming that democratization culture has different moderating effects, depending on whether agility is influenced by advanced or basic use of BDA