Recognizing the value of data in business operations : A study on gathering internal and external data and ways to utilize it in business strategies

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to discover how organizations in the regions of Jakobstad / Pietarsaari and Karleby / Kokkola in Finland collect data and how data are utilised to make accurate and informed decisions to gain and maintain competitive advantage. The study was based on a questionnaire survey which was sent to sixty-three organizations’ leaders operating in different business sectors. Moreover, interviews were conducted with some of the leaders to determine how their organizations gather data, how they pro-cess it, and how the insights gained influence business operations and decision-making processes.

The qualitative method was adopted for the research and the questionnaire contained fifteen strict and unstructured questions which were sent to leaders and their results were compared, analysed and find-ings were made. The survey focused on collection and usage of internal data, collection and usage of external data, and the concepts used to store the collected data before it is processed and analysed. Therefore, data storage solutions were considered and thus, the concept of data repository such as data lake technology was examined. However, different data structures models were out of scope of the study.

The findings of the research clearly indicated that most organizations that responded collect various data from various sources. The sources were both internal and external, and different applications, sensors, and devices were the collectors of data. However, the storage of data and its utilisation varied from organization to organization. Furthermore, the data collected was utilised differently de-pending on the business sector and size of the organization.

Finally, the majority of respondents admitted that their organizations are dependent on insights from collected data and will be committed to the gathering of data in the future.