Factors affecting the adoption of big data analytics in companies

Abstract

With the total quantity of data doubling every two years, the low price of computing and data storage makes the adoption of Big Data analytics (BDA) desirable for companies, as a tool to get competitive advantage. Given the availability of free software, why haven't some companies adopted these techniques? To answer this question, we extended the unified theory of technology adoption and use of technology model (UTAUT) to adapt it for the BDA context by adding two variables: resistance to use and perceived risk. We used the level of implementation of these techniques to divide companies into users and non-users of BDA. The structural models were evaluated by partial least squares (PLS). The results show the importance of good infrastructure exceeds the difficulties companies face in implementing it. While companies planning to use Big Data expect strong results, current users are more skeptical about its performance.