Information overload and coping strategies in the big data context: Evidence from the hospitality sector

Abstract

With the advent of technology, a greater amount of information is available in a greater variety of formats that are accessible through a greater variety of media and communication channels, resulting in a much more complex and rich information environment for business managers. Many businesses are seeing the development of big data as unique opportunity and also experience it as demanding in terms of managerial skills and organisational capability to deal with it. Existing literature provides managerial prescriptions and systemic guidelines to make use of this information, but does not provide empirical evidence on how practising managers actually deal with information overload and make sense of the available data. This article discusses the findings from an interpretive case study of five organisations from the hotel industry within the hospitality sector. It was found that the volume and pace coupled with the qualitative and unsolicited nature of information caused information overload to managers. To cope with this phenomenon at personal level, managers used a combination of filtering, withdrawal and summarising strategies. At organisational level, the practice of summarising evolved into development and use of interactive dashboards.