Visualizing Big Data: The Impact on Sense-Making and Decision-Making

Firms living in a digital disrupting world should continuously understand variables from inside and outside the organization and consequently act efficiently and effectively. This study aims at investigating the role of innovative digital tools to manipulate big data in transforming managers and executives activities, in particular their sense-making (how they interpret data) and decision-making (who is using data and to what extent). A qualitative methodology has been selected to explore how organizations use Business Intelligence (BI)/Data Visualization (DV) tools. A multiple case study approach has been adopted and interviews have been carried in companies belonging to different industries, to investigate how the decision-making process has changed and which benefits and issues have emerged from the use of BI/DV tools. Data collected have been analyzed using the most recent version of Nvivo and within-case and cross-cases analysis have been carried out. The paper suggests four types of roles that BI/DV tools can play, related to a set of organizational characteristics (such as innovation rate of the firm or level of customization of the solution) and provides guidelines for future adoption of these tools.