The study in this article provides reasons why BI is not fully implemented in some organizations. The thematic approach to determining why the technological tools are or are not used by managers provides an actionable set of areas where improvements can be made. One aspect that may relate to our discussions on asking the right questions is, "do managers really need to know how to use BI tools?" In many organizations, managers have enough knowledge about specialized data and tools to know how to task their specialists (BI analysts, in this case) to use them to answer their requirements. This can give analysts too much power in organizations with poor systems, whose data quality is questionable, or with authoritarian cultures where analysts fear giving the "wrong" answer. But in a highly effective environment, managers manage, and analysts analyze.
Literature review
Conceptual framework
Factors influencing the usage of business analytics can be categorised into the following themes: individual characteristics, business intelligence systems quality, organisational factors, macro-environment factors, behavioural beliefs and attitudes, effort perceptions, social influence, and facilitating conditions . Table 1 lists the possible factors that influence business analytics usage.
TABLE 1: Determinants influencing dimensions of business intelligence usage.
Individual characteristics |
Business intelligence systems quality characteristics |
Organisational factors |
Macro-environment factors |
Behavioural beliefs and attitudes |
Effort perceptions |
Social influence |
Facilitating conditions |
Age |
Compatibility |
Focus of the customer |
Business sector |
Relative advantage |
Ease of use |
Voluntariness |
Facilitating conditions |
Computer literacy |
Task-technology fit |
Management support |
Competitiveness of the environment |
Job relevance |
- |
Visibility |
- |
Education |
Information quality |
User participation in implementation |
- |
Perceived usefulness |
- |
Image |
- |
Prior experience |
Output quality |
Iterative development approach |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Attitude |
Relevance |
User training |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Computer self-efficacy System quality |
Organisational culture |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Personal innovativeness |
Complexity |
Information culture |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Computer anxiety |
Accessibility |
Change management |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
Readiness for change |
Triability |
Organisational resources |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
User interface |
Organisational size |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
According to the conceptual framework, a combination of many factors can contribute to the use of a technology or any tool. This research adopted the framework because of its wide range of factors that are considered. The following section explains the methodology that was employed in the study.