Orchestrating inter-organizational technology networks to build data analytics capability: the case of a professional service firm

Purpose This study examines how professional service firms (PSFs) orchestrate inter-organizational technology networks to develop data analytics capability. Adopting an organizational information processing perspective, we examine how PSFs vary orchestration modes across networks to mobilize distributed resources and increase their information-processing capacity. Design/methodology/approach We conducted a longitudinal single-case study of a global PSF in the UK construction sector, triangulating 37 interviews with observations and project documentation. Using an abductive theory-elaboration approach, we explain how the PSF accessed, bundled and leveraged network-embedded resources to build analytics capability. Findings We identify three interrelated components of analytics capability: data capture, data transformation and processing, and data visualization and interpretation. Closed-mode orchestration enabled standardized data capture across the supply network; hybrid orchestration combined broad open engagement with selective closure to integrate technological expertise from SMEs; and open-mode orchestration within the client network fostered use-case elicitation, sensemaking and interpretive alignment. We theorize how inter-organizational network orchestration enables PSFs to assemble information-processing capacity from distributed data, technical expertise and interpretive requirements, thereby improving fit between information-processing needs and capacity. Originality/value We conceptualize analytics capability as a composite inter-organizational capability assembled across organizational boundaries. We extend Organizational information processing theory by showing how information-processing capacity can be assembled across networks of external actors through inter-organizational network orchestration, and advance network orchestration research by identifying a contingency logic linking orchestration mode to the coordination conditions surrounding distributed resources.