THE ROLE OF PROCESS METADATA AND DATA QUALITY PERCEPTIONS IN DECISION MAKING: AN EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK AND INVESTIGATION

The quality of t h e data used in decision-m ak ing t asks has im portant im plications for t he outc om e of t h ese t asks. Data quality researche rs h ave defined various d im ensi ons for m e asuring data quality, su ch as ac cura cy , curren cy, and com plet en ess. Su ch measur ements are intr insi c to the data itse lf and do not t ake into ac count c ont extu al factors relate d to the decision-m aker or t h e decisi on-task. H owever, rec ent rese arch suggests t hat dat a quality, wh en assessed by t he decisionmake rs who use it, is not necessari ly perceived as intrinsic , but as sub jectiv e an d cont ext-depend ent. This research inv est igates the provisi on of process m e tadata - an abstract ed description of h ow dat asets are acquired, processed, stored, and delivered – as a me chan ism t hat affects t he end-use r’s assessment of data quality . In t his stu dy w e develop a model fo r underst anding the associati ons of both perceptions of intrins ic data quality and process metadata w ith the outc om e of a datadriven decision t ask . An exp loratory t est of t h e m odel suggests t hat both data qua lity perceptions and t h e associated process metadata h ave ben eficial eff ects on outc om es, wh en mediated by decision-m aking process effici en cy . The m odel deve loped in t h is stu dy and t he prel imina ry em pirical results h igh l ight t he va lue of em bedding quality and process m etadata in com puter-supported decision envir onm ents to facilit a te ass essment of data quality.