Use and sharing of big data, firm networks and their performance

RIETI conducted the Survey of Big Data Use and Innovation in Japanese Manufacturing Firms in 2015. This paper uses this survey data, linked with TSR data of inter-firm transactions, to examine the relationship between supplier and customer (business partner) network structures and the data sharing with these business partners. It is found that, in general, the number of suppliers is positively correlated with the likelihood of internal use of data and data sharing with suppliers, customers, and other third-party firms. On the contrary, the number of customers is negatively correlated with data use and sharing, especially with customers. The analysis results also show that long-term relationships with suppliers contribute negatively to data sharing, but contribute positively to data sharing with customers. Interestingly, the more customers a firm's suppliers have, or the more suppliers a firm's customers have in their transaction networks, the less likely it is that the firm shares big data with other third-party firms. We find that data sharing has a positive and significant impact on firm productivity. However, we find no positive contribution of data sharing to attracting new customers or suppliers. We do not find any significant effect of data sharing on the extensive margin of transactions.