The role of the social and technical factors in creating business value from big data analytics: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Big data analytics (BDA) has recently gained importance as an emerging technology for handling big data. The use of advanced techniques with differing levels of intelligence, such as descriptive, predictive, prescriptive, and autonomous analytics, is expected to create value for firms. By viewing BDA as a sociotechnical system, we conduct a meta-analysis of 107 individual studies to integrate prior evidence on the role of the technical and social factors of BDA in creating BDA business value. The findings underline the predominant role of the social components in enhancing firm performance, such as the BDA system's human factors and a nurturing organizational structure, in contrast to the minor role of the technological factors. However, both the technical and social factors are found to be strong determinants of BDA business value. Through the combined lens of sociotechnical theory and the IS business value framework, we contribute to research and practice by enhancing the understanding of the main technical and social determinants of BDA business value at the firm level.