A unified foundation for business analytics

a r t i c l e i n f o Synthesizing prior research, this paper designs a relatively comprehensive and holistic characterization of business analytics – one that serves as a foundation on which researchers, practitioners, and educators can base their studies of business analytics. As such, it serves as an initial ontology for business analytics as a field of study. The foundation has three main parts dealing with the whence and whither of business analytics: identification of dimensions along which business analytics possibilities can be examined, derivation of a six-class taxonomy that covers business analytics perspectives in the literature, and design of an inclusive framework for the field of business analytics. In addition to unifying the literature, a major contribution of the designed framework is that it can stimulate thinking about the nature, roles, and future of business analytics initiatives. We show how this is done by deducing a host of unresolved issues for consideration by researchers, practitioners, and educators. We find that business analytics involves issues quite aside from data management, number crunching, technology use, systematic reasoning, and so forth. According to a study by Gartner, the technology category of " analyt-ics and business intelligence " is the top priority of chief information officers, and comprises a $12.2B market [1]. It is seen as a higher priority than such categories as mobile technology, cloud computing, and collaboration technology. Further, Gartner finds that the top technology priority of chief financial officers is analytics [2]. Similarly, in studies involving interviews with thousands of chief information officers, worldwide, IBM asked, " which visionary plan do you have to increase competitiveness over the next 3 to 5 years? " In both 2011 and 2009, 83% of respondents identify " Business Intelligence and Analytics " as their number-one approach for achieving greater competitiveness. Among all types of plans, this is the top percentage for both years. To put this in perspective, consider 2011 results, in which business intelligence and analytics exceeds such other competitiveness plans as mobility solutions (ranked 2nd at74%), cloud computing (ranked 4th at 60%), and social networking (ranked 8th at 55%) [3]. IDC reports that the business analytics software market grew by 13.8% during 2011 to $32B, and predicts it to be at $50.7B in revenue by 2016 [4,5]. It appears that a driver for this growth is the perception or realization that such investments yield value. Across a …