Reconceptualizing synergy to explain the value of business analytics systems

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 Outcomes to explain the business value created by business analytics systems and customer relationship management systems, and we test this model using a survey of 201 managers in Australia and the United States. We find that the synergistic relationship plays a significant role in the creation of business analytics–enabled customer relationship management systems and subsequently business value. Business analytics–enabled customer relationship management systems—comprising business analytics systems, customer relationship management systems and their emergent properties—contribute to transactional, informational and strategic value. This goes beyond the value created by the business analytics and customer relationship management systems individually, as measured through statistical interaction.