دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی جستجو برای کلان داده: بررسی پذیرش احتمال فناوری های کلان داده - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

Big data is often described as a new frontier of IT-enabled competitive advantage. A limited number of exemplary firms have been used recurrently in the big data debate to serve as successful illustrations of what big data technologies can offer. These firms are well-known, data-driven organizations that often, but not always, are born digital companies. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the challenges that many incumbent organizations face when they try to explore a possible adoption of such technologies. This study investigates how incumbents handle such an exploration and what challenges they face. Drawing on a four-year qualitative field study of four large Scandinavian firms, we are able to develop a typology of how incumbents handle the exploration of and resistance to adopting big data technologies. Directly affecting the incumbents’ exploration are two aspects that separate the adoption of big data technologies from that of other technologies. First, being an elusive concept, big data technologies can mean different things to different organizations. This makes the technologies difficult to explain before an investing body, while it simultaneously opens up possibilities for creative definitions. Second, big data technologies have a transformative effect on the organization of work in firms. This transformative capability will make managers wary as it might threaten their position in the firm, and it will create ripple effects, transforming other systems besides those directly connected to the technology.

7. Conclusion

We set out to show how incumbents evaluate the significance of big data for their organizations and to investigate aspects – challenges and opportunities – that drive incumbents toward a positive or a negative conclusion on the adoption of big data technologies. Considerations about adopting new technologies have many similar traits across incumbents, like uncertainty about the meaning of the new technology and uncertainty about how to adapt organizational processes to the new technology. Big data is to some extent different in two aspects: the concept is elusive and can mean different things to different firms, and it can have a transformative effect on the organization of work in the firm. This elusiveness makes it difficult to explain what the technology means but also opens up possibilities of defining the technology in creative ways, thus making it possible to gain support and funds to introduce it. The transformative capability of big data makes managers wary as it might threaten their position in the firm, and creates ripple effects, transforming other systems besides those directly connected to the technology.

To gain a better understanding of the transformative effects of big data, we need to study more incumbent organizations that have gone through the transition. Incumbent D, however, is one of few such companies we have been able to identify. The transition seems difficult for incumbent firms to complete, as so few manage to go through it. Gaining support in an organization for introducing the new technology seems to demand a logic connected to exploitation, effectiveness, and efficiency, while calls for exploration and development often falls on deaf ears. This is somewhat of a paradox as the technology is sold by vendors mainly as a tool for exploring data and information (cf. March, 1991).