This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence Newcastle University ePrints-eprint.ncl.ac.uk Wang Y, Kung K, Byrd TA. Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations.

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Determining and assessing the requisite skills of information technology (IT) personnel have become critical as the value of IT has risen in modern organizations. In addition to technical skills traditionally expected of IT personnel, softer skills like managerial, business, and interpersonal skills have been increasingly cited in previous studies as mandatory for these employees. This paper uses a typology of IT personnel skills-technology management skills, business functional skills, interpersonal skills, and technical skills-and investigates their relationships to two information systems (IS) success variables, IS infrastructure flexibility and the competitive advantage provided by IS. The study investigates these relationships using the perceptions of chief information officers (CIOs) from mostly Fortune 2000 companies. The contributions of this study are: IT personnel skills do affect IS success, technical skills are viewed as the most important skill set in affecting IS infrastructure flexibility and competitive advantage, and modularity is viewed as more valuable to competitive advantage than integration. Several explanations are offered for the lack of positive relationships between the softer IT personnel skills and the dimensions of IS success used in this study.

Drawing on the resource-based theory and dynamic capability view, this study examines the mechanisms by which business analytics capabilities (i.e. the effective use of data aggregation, analytics and data interpretation tools) in healthcare units, indirectly influence decision making effectiveness through the mediating role of knowledge absorptive capacity. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a survey method, this study collected data from hospitals in Taiwan. Of the 155 responses received, three were incomplete, giving a 35.84% response rate, with 152 valid data points. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings: This study conceptualizes, operationalizes and measures the business analytics (BA) capability as a multi-dimensional construct which is formed by capturing the functionalities of BA systems in health care, leading to the conclusion that healthcare units are likely to obtain valuable knowledge through utilizing the data interpretation tools effectively. The effective use of data analysis and interpretation tools in healthcare units indirectly influences decision making effectiveness: an impact that is mediated by absorptive capacity. Originality/Value: This study adds value to the literature by conceptualizing BA capabilities in healthcare and demonstrating how knowledge absorption matters when implementing BA in the decision making process. The mediating role of absorptive capacity not only provides a mechanism by which BA can contribute to decision making practices, but also offers a new solution to the puzzle of the IT productivity paradox in healthcare settings.

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Despite the possible benefits of implementing healthcare information technologies, successful implementation of effective healthcare information technology is constrained by cultural and regulatory concerns and technical obstacles encountered when establishing or upgrading an organisation's enterprise infrastructure. In this paper, we advance Ross' four-stage model of enterprise architecture maturity as a valuable IT resource for helping healthcare organisations sustain a competitive advantage. We use partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling to analyse survey data from 164 US hospitals at different stages of EA maturity. Our results provide evidence that enterprise architecture maturity directly influences the effectiveness of hospitals' IT resources for achieving strategic goals. Further, enterprise architecture maturity indirectly influences the effectiveness of IT resources when IT alignment is incorporated as a mediating variable. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice and suggest opportunities for future research.