Towards an Understanding Business Intelligence. A Dynamic Capability-Based Framework for Business Intelligence

Although Business Intelligence (BI) is one of the most essential technologies to be purchased, the implementation of many BI applications fails. The reasons for this failure are not clear and still not well investigated. Resource-based View (RBV) and dynamic capability theory could help to overcome this gap and to provide an appropriate theoretical basis for future research in BI area. It is considered that BI capabilities may be critical functionalities that help organizations to improve their performance and adopt to environmental change. The research objectives for this study are: (1) conceptualization and discussion on BI dynamic capability, (2) building the comprehensive framework of BI capabilities. In order to address these objectives, the remainder of the paper is structured as follows: The first sections provide the theoretical foundations of BI, RBV and dynamic capability theory. Next, the BI capability was conceptualized. Finally, a model of BI as a dynamic capability, was proposed. The study was based mainly on: (1) a critical analysis of literature, (2) an observation of different BI initiatives undertaken in various organizations, as well as on (3) interviews with managers and experts in BI. The results of this study can be used by IT and business leaders as they plan and develop BI capabilities in their organizations.