Collaboration for Big data Analytics: Investigating the (troubled) relationship between data science experts and functional managers

Abstract

The utilization of insights from big data analytics (BDA) in business operations has been identified as a major driver to unlock value from big data. This emphasizes the importance of the involvement of functional business managers in BDA projects and draws attention to their collaboration with BDA experts, such as data scientists. Scholars have identified several challenges that explain why the success rates of BDA projects remain low. However, the relationship between managers and data science experts has not yet been examined as a potential reason for failure. By applying a social capital perspective on the relationship between these groups, we employ a multiple case study to investigate possible obstacles. We find that the relationship is largely troubled due to incongruent cognitive interpretations of BDA applications in the business context, and the absence of structural network ties. These findings suggest a previously under-researched reason why BDA projects still frequently fail.