Analytics Capability, Supply Chain Capabilities, and Operational Performance: A Meta‐Analytic Investigation

How does the development of Analytics Capability (AC) of a firm influence its supply chain performance? With increasing numbers of firms adopting data analytics to enhance their supply chains and overall performance, this question has become particularly important. To answer the question, this study proposes and tests three dominant supply chain capabilities (integration, flexibility, and resilience) as key mechanisms through which AC is linked with operational performance. We use 405 effect sizes reported in 174 prior empirical studies based on data gathered from 104,296 informants to draw insights using a meta‐analytic structural equation modeling approach. The theory developed herein contributes to the literature by demonstrating that integration, flexibility, and resilience mediate the association between AC and operational performance, which in turn affects customer service performance. Specifically, a substantial degree of variance in the effects of AC on operational performance is mediated by integration, flexibility, and resilience, respectively. We also find that the effect size for the association between AC and operational performance is higher in developing economies, while the link between operational performance and customer service performance is higher in developed economies. Our analyses are robust to several empirical challenges, including (a) common method bias, (b) outliers, (c) endogeneity, and (d) journal quality, attesting to the stability of the findings. Overall, our results suggest that supply chain integration, flexibility, and resilience are key domains of managerial and theoretical focus for implementing firms' data analytics initiatives, reinforcing the role of the supply chain in leveraging data analytics capabilities.