Abstract

Dynamic, volatile, and time-sensitive industries, such as tourism, travel and hospitality, require agility and market intelligence to create value and achieve competitive advantage. Little research exists on the key drivers of Big Data (BD) use for dynamic, real-time and agile businesses. Aim of the current research is to explore the influence of BD on the performance of service organizations and to probe for a deeper understanding of implementing BD, based on available technologies. To do so, an ethnographic study was conducted following an abductive approach. A primary qualitative research scheme was implemented with 35 information technology and database professionals participating in five online focus groups of seven participants each. Analytical themes were developed simultaneously with the literature being revisited throughout the study to ultimately create sets of common themes and dimensions.

The current research reveals that BD can help organizations build agility, especially within dynamic industries, to better predict customer behavioural patterns and make tailor-made propositions from the BD. An integrated BD-specific framework is proposed to address value according to the dimensions of need, value, time and utility.

This research adds to the developing literature on BD applications to support organizational decision-making and business performance in the tourism sector. It responds to scholars’ recent calls for more empirical research with contextual understanding of the use of BD to add value in marketing intelligence within business ecosystems. It delineates factors contributing to BD value creation and explores the impacts on the respective service encounters.

 

Bio

Nikolaos Stylos is Associate Professor (Reader) in Marketing and Digital Innovation at the University of Bristol Business School. Niko is an internationally recognised and awarded scholar specialising in marketing innovation, and digital transformation in the service industries. This is evidenced through grant capture of more than 16 million pounds in total, with a recent successful thirteen million-pound UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant, three international invited conference keynote speeches, three international best paper awards, certificate of achievement as Associate Editor, several world-leading and internationally excellent journal articles, an honorary professorship, and currently more than 5,600 citations. His specific research expertise is in decision-making and marketing, as influenced by innovative digital technologies and applied in the service industries.

He specialises in decision-making modelling as is influenced by new technologies and applied in the service industries, particularly with respect to innovation in tourism & hospitality, as well as in retailing. Niko’s research is interdisciplinary in nature following from his multidisciplinary educational background, i.e. a PhD in Business Administration (Marketing), an MBA, an MSc Mechanical Reliability Engineering and a Postgraduate Diploma in Mechanical Engineering.

Dr Stylos has published in various top-ranked journals including the Journal of Business Research, Annals of Operations Research, Business Horizons, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Advertising Research, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, and International Journal of Tourism Research, Computers in Human Behaviour, The Service Industries Journal, Journal of Cleaner Production among others.