Data Analytics and Knowledge Integration Mechanisms: The Role of Social Interactions in Innovation Management

In a firm, which is viewed as a distributed knowledge system, the role of knowledge integration mechanisms is critical. In the context of data analytics, data mining and statistical analysis enables firms to generate knowledge; which, however, needs to be channeled to the end user of this knowledge. In this study, based on the social capital literature we argue that social interactions between IT and marketing functional unit members facilitate knowledge sharing in intraorganizational setting, which in turn results in improved innovative performance. The theoretical arguments are supported by empirical results collected via an online survey. Theoretical and practical contributions of the study are also discussed.