Success Factors for the Implementation of Big Data as a New Economic Resource

Abstract

Purpose: it is to determine the most important factors that condition the ability of an enterprise to successfully implement the big data as a new economic resource.Methods: the methodological foundation of this research is the analytical framework of the resource-based view, which is applied to highlight the most important factors of the organizational capacity for the implementation of big data into economic activity. These factors are classified by blocks of internal factors of the organizational capacity in two hierarchical levels (organizational and individual). The study is based on the primary information obtained through a survey in the form of semi-structured interviews of managers and experts of the companies pioneering in implementation of big data.Results: a based on the analysis of scientific publications in accordance with positive and normative approaches to the understanding of big data, the concept of "big data" as an economic resource is developed. Its attributes are identified with emphasis on the heterogeneity of big data which allows filtering information about the subsystems of a complex economic system representing the modern enterprise. This information cannot be obtained from traditional sources of economic data. By systematizing the primary information on the projects of implementation of big data into economic activity by foreign companies by applying the analytical framework of the resource-based view, the key conceptual factors of the organizational capacity for the use of big data and relationship among significant factors have been identified. These key internal factors emerge as a result of the revolution in information technology and represent the necessary condition to ensure the transformation of the analytical procedures for decision making at the corporate level based on big data. The study reveals that sufficient condition represents a system of intangible resources and organizational capabilities, the most important of which is the capability to coordinate data processing and analysis. This capability, in a system with the other key organizational level capabilities, enables the integration of analytical and data processing technologies, on the one hand, and individual competencies of employees, on the other.Conclusions and Relevance: the implications of this study are aimed at researchers studying the problems of the information and networked economy, and practitioners of the Russian companies that are implementing or consider the implementation of the big data into economic activity. In business perspective, the most important implication of this research is that effective implementation of big data is not a technical challenge but an organizational and economic one. The basis of the organizational capacity for the implementation of big data is information resources, human resources and corporate culture and systems (technologies) for data processing and analysis.