Internet Search Statistics as a Source of Business Intelligence: Searches on Foreclosure as an Estimate of Actual Home Foreclosures

Historical search data, describing the volume of searches by topic and region, have recently become freely available. This provides a potentially valuable source of data useful for business intelligence about conditions external to the organization where data is sometimes sparse. As an experiment for a business application, Google searches on the keyword “foreclosure” were correlated with actual U.S. home foreclosures over the past 4 years. The resulting regression analysis shows a very good correlation, indicating that searches on “foreclosure” provide a very accurate estimate of trends in actual U.S. home foreclosures and may provide an early warning system. In a related non-business experiment, Google has recently reported success in showing that searches on the term “flu” track closely with worldwide outbreaks of flu

Environmental Scanning Systems: State Of The Art And First Instantiation

The 2008/2009 economic crisis provided a sustainable impulse for improving environmental scanning systems (ESS). Although a rich body of knowledge exists, concepts are not often used in practice. This article contributes a literature review addressing six findings for ESS design to become more applicable than the state of the art. They are structured by the elements of information systems (IS) design theories. Addressing the lack of a sound requirements analysis, our first finding proposes a 360- degree ESS for executives\u27 managing a company task and presents how to select just the most important scanning areas to keep focus. Three other findings cover the IS model perspective focusing on a better grasp of weak signals: define concrete indicators and use IT to identify relevant cause effective- chains, leverage IT to automate day-to-day routines and monitor the variety of indicators\u27 movements, and leverage expert experience and translate indicators\u27 impact into a balanced opportunity-and-threat portfolio. From the methods perspective on ESS, we fifth propose to incorporate scanning results into executives\u27 decision-making process more closely by generating scenarios from a set of assumptions and the development of indicators. Retrospective controls to update the ESS continuously and collaboration to share the scanning findings in day-to-day operation is our sixth finding. Finally, an instantiation at a large international company helped us validate our findings and to highlight how current developments in IS contribute to successful design, implementation, and day-to-day operation of new-generation ESS

POWERING UP COMPANIES\u27 CRYSTAL BALLS: ANALYSIS OF A MULTI-CASE STUDY TOWARDS MORE APPLICABLE ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING SYSTEMS

The increasing volatility of their companies\u27 environment is a growing concern for executives. IS-based environmental scanning that complements the accounting information system domain can help to manage this challenge. A substantial body of knowledge on such information systems exists, but these concepts often go unused in practice. This article develops five design guidelines for environmental scanning systems that are more applicable than those outlined in previous research. In doing so, we first compile a set of requirements based on the principle of economic efficiency, and then use findings from the absorptive capacity theory to specify them. Challenging several implementations against these requirements in a multicase study generates findings that we synthesize into design guidelines. They address diverse areas: designing a more comprehensive model for information gathering, setting up a collective learning process for interpreting information, using IS to enable management techniques familiar to executives, designing processes for more interorganizational integration of environmental scanning systems, and accelerating prototyping

Requirements Criteria for Applicable Environmental Scanning Systems: Model Development and First Demonstration

Especially in turbulent times, environmental scanning systems are an important instrument for supporting managerial decision making. The 2008/2009 economic crisis provided a sustainable impulse for focusing earlier on emerging threats and opportunities. Although a rich body of knowledge exists, concepts remain unused in practice. Most often they lack applicability. This article provides a list of requirements criteria specifying the applicability of environmental scanning systems. It is based on the principle of economic efficiency, uses findings from the absorptive capacity theory and can be applied to both evaluate existing environmental scanning systems and develop a new, more applicable generation than those we researched. We end with evaluating an environmental scanning system of a large, international company

A Systems Theory-Based Framework for Environmental Scanning in Complex System Governance

The purpose of this research was to develop a Systems Theory-based framework for Environmental Scanning (ES) in Complex System Governance (CSG) using an inductive research design. Complexity and uncertainty are normal for external environments in which today’s systems (organizations) exist. These environmental characteristics provide impetus for researchers to focus on organizational planning for disruptive external forces that could threaten system stability and future system existence. The ES function supports the requisite governance metasystemic functions to be enabled, executed, and evolved sufficiently well to promote continuous system viability. In this research the functioning of ES was examined from a diverse literature-based perspective. The literature acknowledges the importance of the ES function, but its consistent development and its impact on system viability in a turbulent environment is not well developed from a Systems Theory-based perspective. This gap in knowledge was addressed in this research. This research examined metasystemic functions performed by ES across a broad literature base encompassing Systems Theory, CSG, Managerial Cybernetics, and ES from several fields of study. This research focused on the lack of explicit use of Systems Theory in ES functionality in metasystemic governance. This research presents a theoretical construct for the expansion of the functionality of ES in CSG that supports enhanced system viability. A rigorous research approach employing a constructivist Grounded Theory Method (GTM) was used to analyze the qualified research literature with a focus on Systems Theory to both consolidate and expand the known functionality of ES in CSG. This research provided a theoretical seventeen-function Systems Theory-based framework for ES in CSG. The overarching theory from this framework is that ES functions support complex system viability through regulation of internal and external variety that is induced by external changes. The literature-based identification of the ES functions demonstrates that ES operates in newly identified mechanisms, beyond the original identification provided by Keating & Katina (2016). A case study was undertaken to demonstrate face validation of the applicability of the emerging Systems Theory-based functions of ES in CSG in an applied setting where possible utility was developed. Topics for future research in ES functionality were identified

Recovering the divide : a review of the big data analytics—strategy relationship

Research on big data analytics has been burgeoning in recent decades, yet its relationship with strategy continues to be overlooked. This paper reviews how big data analytics and strategy are portrayed across 228 articles, identifying two dominant discourses: an input-output discourse that views big data analytics as a computational capability supplementing prospective strategy formulation and an entanglement discourse that theorizes big data analytics as a socially constructed agent that (re)shapes the emergent character of strategy formation. We deconstruct the inherent dichotomies of the input-output/entanglement divide and reveal how both discourses adopt disjointed positions vis-à-vis relational causality and agency. We elaborate a semiotic view of big data analytics and strategy that transcends this standoff and provides a novel theoretical account for conjoined relationality between big data analytics and strategy