Big data management and environmental performance: role of big data decision-making capabilities and decision-making quality

PurposeThis study is undertaken to examine the antecedents and role of big data decision-making capabilities toward decision-making quality and environmental performance among the Chinese public and private hospitals. It also examined the moderating effect of big data governance that was almost ignored in previous studies.Design/methodology/approachThe target population consisted of managerial employees (IT experts and executives) in hospitals. Data collected using a survey questionnaire from 752 respondents (374 respondents from public hospitals and 378 respondents from private hospitals) was subjected to PLS-SEM for analysis.FindingsFindings revealed that data management challenges (leadership focus, talent management, technology and organizational culture for big data) are significant antecedents for big data decision-making capabilities in both public and private hospitals. Moreover, it was also found that big data decision-making capabilities played a key role to improve the decision-making quality (effectiveness and efficiency), which positively contribute toward environmental performance in public and private hospitals of China. Public hospitals are playing greater attention to big data management for the sake of quality decision-making and environmental performance than private hospitals.Practical implicationsThis study provides guidelines required by hospitals to strengthen their big data capabilities to improve decision-making quality and environmental performance.Originality/valueThe proposed model provides an insight look at the dynamic capabilities theory in the domain of big data management to tackle the environmental issues in hospitals. The current study is the novel addition in the literature, and it identifies that big data capabilities are envisioned to be a game-changer player in effective decision-making and to improve the environmental performance in health sector.