Predictive Business Analytics as a Strategic Management Capability: Linking Data-Driven Insights with Organizational Agility and Competitive Performance

Abstract

Predictive business analytics has moved beyond a technical support function to become an important mechanism through which organizations interpret uncertainty, anticipate change, and coordinate strategic action. This methodology-oriented paper develops a structured framework for examining predictive business analytics as a strategic management capability by linking analytics resources and predictive modelling practices with data-driven insights, organizational agility, and competitive performance. The study uses a structured literature synthesis of peer-reviewed research published through 2020 and integrates the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities perspective, business analytics capability literature, and organizational agility research. Predictive analytics capability is treated as a higher-order capability formed through data resources, analytical infrastructure, managerial and technical expertise, governance, and business-strategy alignment. Organizational agility is positioned as a key mechanism through which predictive insights are converted into timely sensing, decision-making, and resource reconfiguration, while competitive performance represents the downstream outcome of improved responsiveness, efficiency, innovation, and market positioning. The synthesis indicates that analytics investments alone are insufficient; value depends on the organization’s ability to embed analytical outputs into strategic routines and action. The resulting framework provides measurable constructs, proposed relationships, and a research design suitable for future empirical testing using survey data and structural equation modelling.