Discussing Relations Between Dynamic Business Environments and Big Data Analytics

Abstract

Big data attracts researchers and practitioners around the globe in their desire to effectively manage the data deluge resulting from the ongoing evolution of the information systems domain. Consequently, many decision makers attempt to harness the potentials arising with the use of those modern technologies in a multitude of application scenarios. As a result, big data has gained an important role for many businesses. However, as of today, the developed solutions are oftentimes perceived as completed products, without considering that the application in highly dynamic environments might benefit from a deviation of this approach. Relevant data sources as well as the questions that are supposed to be answered by their analysis may change rapidly and so do subsequently the requirements regarding the functionalities of the system. To our knowledge, while big data itself is a prominent topic, fields of application that are likely to evolve in a short period of time and the resulting consequences were not specifically investigated until now. Therefore, this research aims to overcome this paucity by clarifying the relation between dynamic business environments and big data analytics (BDA), sensitizing researchers and practitioners for future big data engineering activities. Apart from a thorough literature review, expert interviews are conducted that evaluate the made inferences regarding dynamic and stable influencing factors, the influence of dynamic environments on BDA applications as well as possible countermeasures. The ascertained insights are condensed into a proposal for decision making, facilitating the alignment of BDA and business needs in dynamic business environments.