With the expanding availability of market data, firms are increasingly reliant on analytical capabilities as a source of competitive advantage, a trend that is reflected in the rising budgets allocated to data and analytics (The CMO Survey, 2022). Analytical capabilities denote firms' capacity to define and extract insights from the available data and link these insights to decision-making (e.g., Cao et al., 2019; Penttinen & Frösén, 2022). Despite the growing influence of the capability perspective on marketing analytics, which is rooted in the resource-based view (Barney, 1991), the understanding of analytical capabilities as a source of performance disparities remains in its early stages. In particular, although analytical capabilities of firms constitute (1) capabilities internal to the firm, as well as (2) those shared within the firm’s broader business network, the vast majority of previous research focuses on the development and use of internal analytical capabilities only (Gupta & George, 2016; Wedel & Kannan, 2016). As a result, there remains limited understanding regarding shared analytical capabilities that assume close collaboration between business partners, such as suppliers, buyers, and third parties, in developing and sharing data and insights (Alinaghian & Razmdoost, 2018; Penttinen & Frösén, 2022) and extend beyond the boundaries of individual firms.

• Valeria Penttinen(Hanken School of Economics, Finland)
• Johanna Frösén(Aalto University School of Business, Finland)