Big Data-Competitive Advantage for Organizations

B

ig Data is defined as “largescale data from many sources and structures that cannot be

analysed using traditional methods and is used to solve organizational or societal problems.”

Multi-sourced unstructured text

combined with location- and sensor-

based real-time data in time series, for example, could be utilized to better understand customer behaviour in marketing.

When contemplating the relationship of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the upper hand of associations, it isn't sufficient to consider how data frameworks are built

and created, or how they are incorporated and overseen. It is important to focus on how the clients are using the ICT in their exercises. Surely, client situated innovations are as of late in the spotlight, like Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Mobile Computing. This examination addresses the connection between Big Data use and authoritative upper hand.

ICT and competitive advantage

The role of ICT in enhancing organizational value has been investigated. For example, it has been discovered that investing in ICT can bring value to an organization on average, but that the generation of this value is often dependent on various factors such as establishing a sufficient user base, restructuring the organization to capture the potential of new ICT, or developing new skills, competencies, and capabilities around the technology. This advantage does not have to be monetary; for example, it could arise from enhanced customer pleasure.

Given the ever-changing market environment, it has been suggested that achieving long-term competitive advantage through ICT necessitates overcoming organizational rigidity. Scholars underline the fact that ICT is a

technology that is intricately linked to the organizational fabric. Bharadwaj (2000) and Piccoli & Ives (2005), for example, highlight how ICT may be used to create barriers against organizational competitors by

combining it with other complementary resources. Using ICT as a competitive weapon appears to necessitate extensive preparation and investment in order to build an

organization-wide ICT capacity based on lower-level competencies.

ICT has recently become pervasive and present in practically every organizational activity, with ICT services acquired and sourced from outside the business. This commoditization of ICT may lead to a situation where ICT differentiation in a competitive market becomes more challenging. ICT capability did not add to company performance, which could serve as a warning of such a scenario. As a result, it's unclear to what extent new ICT, such as those connected to Cloud

Computing and Big Data, contribute to organizational competitive advantage. If a contribution is apparent, as described above, it is more likely to be based on the valuable use of data created by the ICT than on the presence of the ICT itself. Big Data derived from ICT has the potential to aid learning in the business (user) divisions. As a result, Big Data refocuses attention on an organization's human resources and their capacity to transform data into knowledge, and eventually, competitive advantage.

Big Data empowering the ICT user to create competitive advantage

As previously stated, business division users have long been regarded as critical in achieving ICT-based organizational competitive advantage. The role of users has been seen from a variety of perspectives, including their importance in system acceptance and diffusion, participation in system development, and acting as developers themselves. The literature has also identified postadoption of systems, or their continuous use after the first stages of adoption.

The traditional definition of "user"

highlighted that the system being used, not the person utilizing it, was the main source of potential for the company. Today's users, on the other hand, are frequently knowledge workers, experts, and managers whose jobs centre on information and whose work outputs are the result of processing and analysing data in groups rather than as isolated parts of the organizational machine.

These users benefit from a richness of

communication that enables them to

translate their everyday practices and action-based knowledge into organizational competence and they should be supported by, for example,

developing a knowledge-sharing culture, establishing knowledgesharing processes and structures, and rewarding knowledge use. While it is critical to evaluate the progressive dissemination and adoption of Big Data technologies in businesses, the true value of Big Data is most likely to emerge in this type of knowledgebased work, where data is processed into forms that can be used to make decisions.

Big Data has huge potential for usergenerated knowledge production. Big Data can significantly boost the quantity and quality of this data, and this link will likely become increasingly essential in the future. The marketing division of the business has long been interested in the use of information

systems, and in recent years, the relevance of ICT skills for marketing professionals has been highlighted. The influence of Big Data on organizational sustainable competitive advantage is likely to be realized through knowledge generation activities in marketing divisions, which are well-positioned in terms of customer data access.

Conclusion

The fast evolution of technologies that can generate and analyse enormous amounts of data is having a significant impact on society and businesses. As the lucrative use of data is increasingly expected in value creation, ICT users have become a significant competitive force for enterprises. Data and information have grown increasingly important, emphasizing the importance of Big Data users in generating new knowledge and opportunities for businesses. ICT and competitive advantage in organizations are intricately intertwined. As a result, using Big Data for competitive advantage will rely on a number of antecedents, some of which are similar to those discovered

for the link between ICT and competitiveness, while others may be novel. We investigate the relationship between Big Data usage and competitive advantage in this study.

Vishakha Kaushik MBA 2020 - 2022