رویاهای کلان دیتا: چارچوبی برای استراتژی شرکتی Big data dreams: A framework for corporate strategy

1. The big data phenomenon As characters walk through the mall in the 2002 science-fiction thriller Minority Report, the future is envisioned as a place where various companies can immediately and personally advertise their products to individual consumers using troves of historical data and biometric recognition. As Tom Cruise’s character, John Anderton, strolls into a Gap store along with other shoppers, a digitized young woman greets the customers with personalized messages: “Hello, Mr. Yakamoto! Welcome back to the Gap. How did those assorted tank tops work out for you?” and “Hey Miss Belfour, did you come back for another pair of those chamois lace-ups?” With data capture and data analytic capabilities on the rise, this Minority Report reality is quickly approaching (see Ghose, Li, & Liu, 2016). We are moving toward individualized shopping experiences both online and in traditional brick-and-mortar stores thanks to the knowledge extracted by firms from our purchases, mouse clicks, social media posts, and various other actions. Central to this movement is the availability and accessibility of big data: large, diverse, complex, and/or longitudinal data sets generated from a variety of instruments, sensors, and/or computerbased transactions (Megahed & Jones-Farmer, 2013). Executives across many industries are plunging resources into big data projects with aims to better monitor, measure, and manage their organizations in hopes of solving many of their longstanding operational concerns. Retail, manufacturing, financial services, and firms of virtually all other sectors are actively investing in the search for and development of new competitive advantages, such as offering personalized customer service (as in the futuristic Gap), more efficient processes and supply chains, or improved product offerings. Even the entertainment industry has jumped on the trend, as content creators like Netflix use big data initiatives to determine casting and storylines (Carr, 2013) and sports team employ analytics to gain an edge on the playing field (Steinberg, 2015).