How can SMEs benefit from big data? Challenges and a path forward

Big data is big news, and large companies in all sectors are making significant advances in their customer relations, product selection and development and consequent profitability through using this valuable commodity. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have proved themselves to be slow adopters of the new technology of big data analytics and are in danger of being left behind. In Europe, SMEs are a vital part of the economy, and the challenges they encounter need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. This paper identifies barriers to SME uptake of big data analytics and recognises their complex challenge to all stakeholders, including national and international policy makers, IT, business management and data science communities. The paper proposes a big data maturity model for SMEs as a first step towards an SME roadmap to data analytics. It considers the ‘state-of-the-art’ of IT with respect to usability and usefulness for SMEs and discusses how SMEs can overcome the barriers preventing them from adopting existing solutions. The paper then considers management perspectives and the role of maturity models in enhancing and structuring the adoption of data analytics in an organisation. The history of total quality management is reviewed to inform the core aspects of implanting a new paradigm. The paper concludes with recommendations to help SMEs develop their big data capability and enable them to continue as the engines of European industrial and business success. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Big Data Redux: New Issues and Challenges Moving Forward

As of the time of this writing, our HICSS-46 proceedings article has enjoyed over 520 Google Scholar citations. We have published several HICSS proceedings, articles and a book on this subject, but none of them have generated this level of interest. In an effort to update our findings six years later, and to understand what is driving this interest, we have downloaded the first 500 citations to our article and the corresponding citing article, when available. We conducted an in-depth literature review of the articles published in top journals and leading conference proceedings, along with articles with a high volume of citations. This paper provides a brief summary of the key concepts in our original paper and reports on the key aspects of interest we found in our review, and also updates our original paper with new directions for future practice and research in big data and analytics

Towards a business analytics capability maturity model

Business analytics (BA) systems are an important strategic investment for many organisations and can potentially contribute significantly to firm performance. Establishing strong BA capabilities is currently one of the major concerns of chief information officers. This research project aims to develop a BA capability maturity model (BACMM). The BACMM will help organisations to scope and evaluate their BA initiatives. This research-in-progress paper describes the current BACMM, relates it to existing capability maturity models and explains its theoretical base. It also discusses the design science research approach being used to develop the BACMM and provides details of further work within the research project. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of how the BACMM might be used in practice.<br /

Education in the age of Generative AI: Context and Recent Developments

With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, an increasing number of individuals and organizations have begun exploring its potential to enhance productivity and improve product quality across various sectors. The field of education is no exception. However, it is vital to notice that artificial intelligence adoption in education dates back to the 1960s. In light of this historical context, this white paper serves as the inaugural piece in a four-part series that elucidates the role of AI in education. The series delves into topics such as its potential, successful applications, limitations, ethical considerations, and future trends. This initial article provides a comprehensive overview of the field, highlighting the recent developments within the generative artificial intelligence sphere

Constituent Elements for Prescriptive Analytics Systems

Prescriptive analytics has emerged as a technological driver in data-intensive enterprise environ- ments, as it tries to transform valuable insights into actionable recommendations and act upon them in order to meet business objectives. The basic idea is to go beyond the findings of descriptive data anal- ysis and predictive modeling to answer the questions “What should be done?” and “Why should it be done?”. However, there is often an inconsistent understanding about constituent elements of prescrip- tive analytics, which may hinder the development of adequate information systems. For this reason, the paper deals with a conceptualization by conducting a systematic literature review. The research goal is to extract fundamental aspects and facets from different perspectives and consolidate them into a coherent view towards a common understanding of a prescriptive analytics system

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

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

Big Data and Analytics: Issues and Challenges for the Past and Next Ten Years

In this paper we continue the minitrack series of papers recognizing issues and challenges identified in the field of Big Data and Analytics, from the past and going forward. As this field has evolved, it has begun to encompass other analytical regimes, notably AI/ML systems. In this paper we focus on two areas: continuing main issues for which some progress has been made and new and emerging issues which we believe form the basis for near-term and future research in Big Data and Analytics. The Bottom Line: Big Data and Analytics is healthy, is growing in scope and evolving in capability, and is finding applicability in more problem domains than ever before

Data science, analytics and artificial intelligence in e-health : trends, applications and challenges

Acknowledgments. This work has been partially supported by the Divina Pastora Seguros company.More than ever, healthcare systems can use data, predictive models, and intelligent algorithms to optimize their operations and the service they provide. This paper reviews the existing literature regarding the use of data science/analytics methods and artificial intelligence algorithms in healthcare. The paper also discusses how healthcare organizations can benefit from these tools to efficiently deal with a myriad of new possibilities and strategies. Examples of real applications are discussed to illustrate the potential of these methods. Finally, the paper highlights the main challenges regarding the use of these methods in healthcare, as well as some open research lines