ROGER H.L. CHIANG, VARUN GROVER, TING-PENG LIANG, AND DONGSONG ZHANG, GUEST EDITORS

The rapid accumulation of data in diverse forms and from various sources has been driving an increasing interest in big data and business analytics. Applications of a variety of analytical techniques have gained much attention in recent years. Businesses are exploring the new possibility of uncovering hidden knowledge, improving decision making, and supporting strategic planning from big data. Although substantial resources have been invested in big data and analytics (BDA) and anecdotal evidence of both success and failure have been reported, there has been little substantial research on the strategic contributions of BDA. The lingering question is whether BDA is a fad that will disappear in five years.

In addition to the four V’s (volume, velocity, variety, and veracity) characterization of big data, value has been considered the fifth key dimension in BDA. Analysis of data without generating value offers no contribution to an organization, regardless of whether data are big or small. The success of BDA projects requires not only infrastructure, data analysts, and knowledge and tools for dealing with big data, but also an understanding of how BDA translates to competitive advantages and strategic value. The challenges in deploying advanced data analytics to outperform competitors are real and exist in every aspect of analytics, including capturing, collecting, storing, processing, and managing big data, as well as drawing valuable insights from it. This Special Issue, therefore, invited information systems (IS) research that examined how BDA creates strategic value for organizations. We received 47 submissions of extended abstract. The studies published in this issue are the result of initial screening and three rounds of review. The articles examine issues ranging from the value creation mechanism to the impact of BDA on organizations.

The first paper, “Creating Strategic Business Value from Big Data Analytics: A Research Framework,” defines strategic business values to include functional and symbolic value. A framework for strategic value creation is proposed, which includes capability building and capability realization processes. Illustrative cases, five theoretical lenses for strategic value creation and potential research issues are discussed. This framing is complemented with a more pragmatic problem-oriented approach to BDA that raises a set of important research questions that need to be studied to advance this area.

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2018.1451950