The Impact of Big Data Analytics Adoption on thePerformance of Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprises ABSTRACT In todays digitalized era, the adoption of Industry 4.0 technology pillars can boost businesses by enhancing organizational performance. As one of the crucial pillars, big data potentially has been receiving heightened interests from academics and practitioners. Big Data Analytics (BDA) is viewed as a new strategic weapon in business that allows organizations to gain valuable insights for decision-making towards better performance. Most multinationals and larger companies may already be implementing BDA aiming at enhancing organizational performance, but many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are still at the exploratory stage.The present study proposes the outcome of BDA adoption on performance among Malaysian SMEs and the role of strategic agility as moderator. Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises; Big Data Analytics; Adoption; Performance; Strategic Agility;Malaysia. 1. INTRODUCTION Since 2011, the term Industry 4.0 was introduced at Hannover Fair, which was one of the worlds largest trade fair. Industry 4.0 is likely to become the largest generator of big data [1]. Data has major impact on the revolution of networks, digital technology, because people and platforms changed the business. Big Data Analytics (BDA) offered as a key to addressing a wide range of business and IT management needs. However, the label BDA is used in variety ways, confusing people about its usefulness and how best to implement in order to drive business value. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play important roles in Malaysia at the end of 1990s. SMEs become the backbone of business establishments in Malaysia. SMEs are the drivers for economy growths; it represented 98.5% of all business establishments in the country and having contribution 66% of employment in 2017 [2]. SMEs have been at the core of Malaysian economic transformation into middle-income nation and an important drive for employment growth. SMEs have vital contribution to economic development, political stability and social ascentof each county. SME can be started in any kind of business activities in rural and urban area. Many studies have been conducted regarding SME challenge with broad views that included SMEs unskillfulness, restricted banking service, access to credit and survival rates. Malaysian SMEs real GDP growth has persistently exceeded overall economy, averaging at 6.6% per annum compared to the overall GDPs 5.1 growth over the past 14 years (2004-2017) [2]. SMEs are considered as the backbone of industrial development and the Report from Department of Statistic 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT Terziovski [29] found the high failure rate to be larger due to the lack of systems to an informal strategic planning processes that keeps track of the SMEs performance. According to the United States small business administration, nearly 50% of SMEs failed in the first yearand 95% tended to fail by the five-year mark. SMEs with fewer than 20 employees have only a 37% surviving for 4 years and 9% chance of surviving for 10 years [30]. Although there are not reliable sources of publishing failure rates for SMEs in Malaysia, there are serious issues facing sustainable SMEs performance. Since Industry 4.0 has slowly lead SMEs in the digital technology innovation development, SMEs can optimize their performance and efficiency in technologies. For the year 2012-2013, there was a decline trends in BDA as reported by Kiron, Prentice and Ferguson [31]. Progressive organizations adopted BDA to gain competitive pressure; the steep growth curve of BDA based organizations was diminishing. Coleman et al [32] proved that SMEs are slow adopters of the new technology of BDA and in danger of being left behind. BDA plays a key role as the organization starts their digitaltransformation. International Data Corporation (IDC) mentions by 2021, Malaysia BDA marketing software is forecasted to reach RM595million. In 2017, Malaysia BDA software expenditures will total RM433.7 million, an increase of 10.9% over 2016 [33]. Malaysia organizations have started to prioritize analytical solutions. Early adoptersare both SMEs and traditional manufacturing companies [34]. Big data is seen to be as vital to society and businessesas the technology keeps improving. Many data may lead tomore accurate analysis and it leads to more confident decision-making. A good business decision can mean greater operational efficiency, reduced risk and cost reduction to business. Big data has been giving a lot of challenges to developing countries, but it also brings tremendous benefits to improve rural communities and transformation in economic and social life [35]. Malaysia must enhance big data investment as a key factor in determining the local and regional future in the industry. The growth of the Internet, the extent of smart mobile devices and social networking have contributed to the ever-increasing amounts of data that can be accessed by companies. Coleman et al [32] identified that SMEs have various factors and conditions in the adoption of BDA in business. 3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study proposes to answer two main research questions: 1. Does BDA adoption significantly impact organizational performance among Malaysian SMEs? 2. Does strategic agility positively moderate the impact of BDA adoption on organizational performance among Malaysian SMEs ? 4. PROPOSED RESEARCH MODEL Previous study suggested that IT resources help improve business value and influence the organizational performance [36]. BDA techniques are able to analyze larger amounts and data types with more advanced algorithms that allow for prescriptive analysis [37]. The analytical process, including the deployment and use of BDA tools, is perceived by organizations as a tool for improving operational efficiency, although it has strategic potential, drives new revenue streams and gains competitive advantages over business competition. Thus, the proposition 1 can be proposed as follow: Proposition 1: Big Data Analytics (BDA) adoption significantly impacts organizational performance among Malaysian SMEs. Strategic agility is critical to organizations survival as it enables the organization to respond quickly to changes in its internal and external environment. Strategic agility enables an organization to quickly and cost effectively adapt to changes in the business environment by successfully implementing the restriction and transformation of business process. Strategic business agility refers to an organizations ability to continuously align with its environment and respond sensitively to its business environment [27]. BDA adoption provides strategic agility as the organization responds quickly in the era of big data. BDA application can enable effective internal and external knowledge management, that helps organizations create organizational agility [38]. By having strategic agility in thecontext, BDA adoption will improve the organizationalperformance. Thus, the following Proposition 2 can be proposed as follow: Proposition 2: Strategic agility positively moderates the impact of BDA adoption on organizational performanceamong Malaysian SMEs. This research focuses on the BDA adoption by SMEs manufacturing sector in Malayisa. Hence, the population covers all SMEs manufacturing that have deployed any form of BDA services. Past studies on BDA adoption [39] and IT system impact on organization performance utilized Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach to Structural Equation Modelling to access the measurement items while estimating the path of the structural model. To help the respondents more effectively answer the BDA adoption questions, a definition of big data and BDA will be providedat the beginning of the survey to ensure that respondents have a common understanding of the research. A seven- point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) will be used to measure the responses.

5. CONCLUSION BDAs emerging technology, which can offer strategic, operational and other benefits, still has significant adoption rates in industry-wide organizations. Since the latest information system research lacks concentration on this technology and the outcome of such adoption on organizational performance, this study proposes a research model to examine the outcome of BDA adoption in the context of SMEs Malaysia as well as the role of strategic agility in this relationship. This study proposes investigative practices that would be used in the adoption of IT technology for SMEs in Malaysia. Secondly, this study will also examine how it enables IT management to integrate with business or organizational performance by more economical usage of IT, and can ultimately increase the organizational slack resources of a company which can be channeled into business activities. Theoretically, this study proposes empirical validation of a conceptual model based on theories of strategic management, resource-based view and dynamic capabilities to explain the BDA value a business is able to create. While many studies have been conducted on the value of big data, the real advantage of big data remains a myth. Therefore, this study aims to empirically validate the impact of BDA as resources and strategic agility making as dynamic capability has impact on organizational performance.

Question A1 Discuss the Thesis Statement, background of the study, problem statement, research objectives, methodology, and the conclusion of the above study.