While Business Analytics refers to the processes and techniques of data analysis for the generation of knowledge and intelligence, strategic Decision Making is the process of creating organisational mission and objectives and choosing the courses of action to achieve those goals. Business Analytic focussed on sophisticated information technologies, Business Analytics offers the possibilities for organizations to use data-driven insights to improve their Decision Making and performance. While there is an indication that companies use Business Analytics perform better than those that do not “many companies are still struggling to figure out how, where and when to use analytics”, or “unsure how to proceed”, or “struggling to achieve a worthwhile return”. Thus, a fundamental research question yet to be answered is how Business Analytics can be used to affect Decision Making and organizational performance. In many large corporations and organizations, there is no compromise on the quality of information (data) in terms of validity, reliability and accuracy. This requires the top management to boost certain culture within the organization that enforces the attitude of “No Information without Validation”. In order for each individual to make sure that the information in hand is applicable, trustable and ready for decision making, the certain methodology should be adopted and followed. One of the challenges that faces any decision maker is “What is the Information she/he needs to make valid, reliable and yet less risky decision?” Indeed, one of the main characteristics of modern organizations is the data revolution that has been steadily taking place over the last two decades. Many practitioners and scholars even see organizational and management decision making to be in the middle of a gradual transformation from an instinct-driven “art” to a progressively data-driven approach. As a result, organizations today have access to almost unlimited amounts of data – sales, demographics, economic trends, competitive data, consumer behaviour, efficiency measures, financial calculations, and more. Business Analytics has played a critical role in this transformation, through the development of methods, systems and tools that have enabled the collection, storage and analysis of this vast quantity of data recognized as Business Analytics systems and applications. Besides, Decision Making research has yet to examine how Business Analytics might affect Decision Making characteristics and ultimately organisational performance. The absence of such an understanding inevitably constrains the abilities of organisations to fully realise the benefits of their investments in Business Analytics. However, no published research has investigated the relationship between Business Analytics and Decision Making and organisational performance from the affordances perspective yet. Thus, this research contributes to the existing literature conceptually and empirically.
Keyword: Business Analytics, Strategic decision making, Indian Market, E-commerce
Puneet Kumar