A Multidisciplinary Perspective of Big Data in Management Research

In recent years, big data has emerged as one of the prominent buzzwords in business and management. In spite of the mounting body of research on big data across the social science disciplines, scholars have offered little synthesis on the current state of knowledge. To take stock of academic research that contributes to the big data revolution, this paper tracks scholarly work's perspectives on big data in the management domain over the past decade. We identify key themes emerging in management studies and develop an integrated framework to link the multiple streams of research in fields of organisation, operations, marketing, information management and other relevant areas. Our analysis uncovers a growing awareness of big data's business values and managerial changes led by data-driven approach. Stemming from the review is the suggestion for research that both structured and unstructured big data should be harnessed to advance understanding of big data value in informing organisational decisions and enhancing firm competitiveness. To discover the full value, firms need to formulate and implement a data-driven strategy. In light of these, the study identifies and outlines the implications and directions for future research.