Abstract

This conceptual paper addresses the capabilities offered by big data analytics (BDA), critical in turbulent environments, in the context of the Industry 4.0 revolution. BDA enhances organizational agility, as it is highly valuable for the identification of opportunities and threats (i.e. the sensing process of agility); however, with the exception of aiding decision-making tools, seizing its benefits for reacting (i.e. responding) is more difficult without organizational adaptation. Hence, the changes required to exploit the full capabilities offered by BDA, particularly at the organizational level, are considerable. From a theoretical perspective, through a narrative literature review, this paper highlights several possibilities of organizational changes for enhancing a company’s agility and leveraging BDA to achieve enhanced performance in turbulent contexts. The findings are then related to three organizational theories. This work ends in a conceptual model and several research paths for future studies. From a managerial perspective, this paper highlights, through several examples, the importance of top management’s role in achieving the necessary organizational changes to enhance the companies’ responding capabilities.

摘要

这份概念性文件探讨了大数据分析 (BDA) 提供的功能，在工业 4.0 革命的背景下，大数据分析 (BDA) 在动荡的环境中至关重要。BDA 增强了组织的敏捷性，因为它对于识别机会和威胁（即敏捷的感知过程）非常有价值；然而，除了辅助决策工具之外，如果没有组织适应，则更难以抓住其对反应（即响应）的好处。因此，利用 BDA 提供的全部功能所需的更改，特别是在组织级别，是相当大的。从理论角度，通过叙事性文献综述，本文重点介绍了组织变革的几种可能性，以提高公司的敏捷性并利用 BDA 在动荡的环境中实现更高的绩效。然后，这些发现与三种组织理论有关。这项工作以概念模型和未来研究的若干研究路径结束。从管理的角度来看，本文通过几个例子强调了高层管理人员在实现必要的组织变革以增强公司应对能力方面的重要性。