Data assets, information uses, and operational efficiency

This paper studies the impact of data assets on firms' operational efficiency, aiming to show how data assets work in business operations and highlight their key value. Given the rich content, data assets can increase operational efficiency as it embeds firms with valuable information used to optimize resource deployment in production and improve customer relationship management. Using a sample of A-share listed firms in China from 2003 to 2019, we empirically show a consistent and significantly positive relationship between a text-based measure of data assets and operational efficiency. Moreover, the positive effect of data assets on operational efficiency is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), diversified firms with redundant internal information, and firms in a more complex external information environment (i.e. more volatile earnings of the industry or a larger dispersion of analysts' forecasts). As further evidenced by higher turnover ratios of inventory and lower turnover ratios of accounts receivables in firms with data assets, we verify that data assets lead to efficient production management and flexible customer relationship management. Overall, these results suggest that data assets are valuable in the efficiency improvement of firms by facilitating information uses.