Distinctive organisational business imperatives of Big Data: a literature review

Pages1087-1097
Date06 November 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EL-11-2015-0235
Published date06 November 2017
AuthorJorina Smeda
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Distinctive organisational
business imperatives of Big Data:
a literature review
Jorina Smeda
Department of Accountancy, University Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify the business imperatives characteristic of an
organisation that will benet from the use of Big Data, to give businessmanagers, knowledge workers and
librariansguidance as to whether their business will benetfrom the use of this technology.
Design/methodology/approach A literature review was conducted to identify and categorise Big
Data benets into four overall benetcategories. This provided a basis to identify the business imperatives
distinctiveof an organisation that would be able to benetfrom the use of Big Data. As a nal step, the degree
of impact of each of the benet categories was concluded to assist business managers in the better
understanding and evaluation of whether Big Data would be a suitable technology for their specic
organisation.
Findings The competitiveadvantage that a business can gain from the use of analysing large amounts of
data (Big Data) is becauseit is equippedto utilise the informationobtained through analysing the data in such
a way that it provides better knowledgemanagement within the organisation. The business imperativesand
benets identied in this study will assist organisations in evaluating whether Big Data will be a suitable
technologyfor their organisation.
Originality/value This paper provides a better understanding of business imperatives distinctive of
organisationsthat can benet from the use of Big Data.
Keywords Big Data, Knowledge management, Business imperatives, Value delivery
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
In 2011, 88 per cent of US industrysectors had more data stored, per company, than the 235
terabytes stored by the US Libraryof Congress at that stage (Manyika et al., 2011). Big Data
refers to data sets of which the size, as wellas the velocity, complexity and variability of the
data, exceeds the capabilities of traditional database tools with regards to capturing,
storage, management and analysis of the data (Chenand Zhang, 2014;Manyika et al., 2011;
TechAmerica Foundation, 2012). Many businesses are overwhelmed by Big Data (Green
and Panzer, 2014), but those that are aware of where they are in terms of the adoption of
analytics have a competitive advantagebecause they are better prepared to turn challenges
into opportunities (LaValle et al., 2011). In a world where the amount of data to which
companies have access increasessignicantly every year, this becomes an importantdriver
for business success. Big Data and the analysis thereofenable organisations to nd value in
their market segment (Earley, 2014). According to Wang and Yuan (2014), effective use of
Big Data results in higher return on equity for these organisations and, with time, the so-
called Big Datahasthe potential to become a new type of corporate asset.
Knowledge managers are the custodians of the information assets and data of an
organisation and play an integral part in the success with which organisations effectively
analyse and manage the data (Big Data) available to them (Klobas, 2000). Librarians have
Business
imperatives of
Big Data
1087
Received27 November 2015
Revised31 December 2015
10August 2016
20October 2016
13January 2017
Accepted19 February 2017
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 6, 2017
pp. 1087-1097
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-11-2015-0235
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm

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