Firms can achieve a competitive advantage by leveraging real-time Digital Data Streams (DDSs). The ability to profit from DDSs is emerging as a critical competency for firms and a novel area for Information Technology (IT) investments. We examine the relationship between DDS readiness and competitive advantage by studying the mediation effect of product effectiveness and process efficiency. The research model is tested with data obtained from 302 companies, and the results confirm the existence of the mediation effects. Interestingly, we confirm that competitive advantage is more significantly impacted by IT investments affecting product effectiveness than those affecting process efficiency.

企业可以通过利用实时数字数据流（DDS）来获得竞争优势。从DDS获利的能力正在成为企业的关键能力和信息技术（IT）投资的新领域。我们通过研究产品有效性和流程效率的中介效应来研究DDS准备就绪与竞争优势之间的关系。使用从302家公司获得的数据对研究模型进行了测试，结果证实了调解效果的存在。有趣的是，我们确认竞争优势受影响产品有效性的IT投资的影响要比影响流程效率的IT投资影响更大。