The Role of Big Data Analytics in Corporate Decision-making

Big Data Analytics results can play a major role in corporate decision-making allowing companies to achieve competitive advantage and make improved decisions. This paper describes a systematic literature review (SLR) on the role of the results of Big Data Analytics in corporate decisions. Initially, 1652 papers were identified from various sources. Filtering through the 5-step process, 20 relevant studies were selected for analysis in this SLR. The findings of this study are fourfold in the area of: (a) usage of the results of Big Data Analytics in corporate decision-making; (b) the types of business functions where analytics has been fruitfully utilised; (c) the impact of analytics on decision-making; and (d) the impediments to using Big Data Analytics in corporate decision-making. Also, on the management front, two important issues identified are: (i) aligning data-driven decision-making with business strategy and (ii) collaboration across business functions for effective flow of Big Data and information. On the technical front, big data present some challenges due to the lack of tools to process such properties of Big Data as variety, veracity, volume, and velocity. We observe from this analysis that, thus far, little scientific research has focused on understanding how to address the analytics results in corporate decision-making. This paper ends with some recommendations for further research in this area.