Creating Strategic Business Value from Big Data Analytics: A Research Framework

TLDR

While big data analytics projects are widely promoted, their success rates and strategic value creation remain unclear, and existing literature focuses mainly on tactical benefits rather than organizational value, leaving a gap in understanding how BDA can generate strategic advantage. The study aims to delineate BDA’s value proposition by defining its components and offering a problem‑oriented framework to guide future research. The authors extend IT value frameworks to create a BDA value model, illustrate it with real‑world applications, and discuss its use for studying constructs and relationships that drive value creation and realization. The proposed framework offers a foundation for a research agenda that can better align BDA practice with effective data resource utilization.

Abstract

Despite the publicity regarding big data and analytics (BDA), the success rate of these projects and strategic value created from them are unclear. Most literature on BDA focuses on how it can be used to enhance tactical organizational capabilities, but very few studies examine its impact on organizational value. Further, we see limited framing of how BDA can create strategic value for the organization. After all, the ultimate success of any BDA project lies in realizing strategic business value, which gives firms a competitive advantage. In this study, we describe the value proposition of BDA by delineating its components. We offer a framing of BDA value by extending existing frameworks of information technology value, then illustrate the framework through BDA applications in practice. The framework is then discussed in terms of its ability to study constructs and relationships that focus on BDA value creation and realization. We also present a problem-oriented view of the framework—where problems in BDA components can give rise to targeted research questions and areas for future study. The framing in this study could help develop a significant research agenda for BDA that can better target research and practice based on effective use of data resources.