Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the radar of academics” (Negash & Gray, 2003;
Pirttimäki, Lönnqvist, & Karjaluoto, 2006). Most
available literature focuses on BI technology
such as data-warehousing (Barbara, Wixom, &
Watson, 2001; Kimball, 2008), OLAP (online
analytical processing) (Chaudhuri & Dayal, 1997;
Tremblay et al., 2007) and data-mining (Fayyad
& Uthurusamy, 1996; Han & Kamber, 2006).
Unfortunately, considerably less attention is given
to the organizational side of BI, investigating BI
processes and BI organization (Philips & Vriens,
1999; Pirttimäki & Hannula, 2003; Zeng, Xu, Shi,
Wang, & Wu, 2006a). By investigating BI-FIT,
this chapter provides new insights into research
on the organizational aspects of BI as well as a
better understanding of BI end-user adoption.
In general, the goal of Information Systems
(IS) research is to produce knowledge that enables
the application of information technology for
managerial and organizational purposes (Hevner,
et al., 2004). The main goal of this research is to
develop a model that depicts the major factors
influencing BI-FIT, which can be used to assist
organizations in identifying and defining differ-
ing BI end-user groups and their needs, in order
to provide end-users with a BI solution that fits.
For this purpose, a design research approach is
used. By means of constructing an artifact, new
scientific knowledge can be generated (Hevner et
al., 2004; Vaishnavi & Kuechler, 2007). In this
research the artifact is the BI-FIT Framework,
which is developed according to the steps (problem
awareness, suggestion and development, evalua-
tion & conclusion) in developing design research
artifacts as described by Vaishnavi et. al. (2007).
Awareness of the problem area was raised in dis-
cussions with BI practitioners from the field, BI
literature reporting BI success and failure, and in
articles in BI professional magazines and blogs.
A detailed problem description was provided in
the previous section.
Based on the problems as described in the
background section of this chapter it has become
clear that when implementing BI, more time
and attention needs to be devoted to the actual
end-users of the BI solution, instead of purely
focusing on technology. However, because limited
knowledge on BI end-user adoption is available,
it was decided to investigate the main factors
influencing BI usage from an end-users perspec-
tive. Furthermore, the factors identified are used
to develop the BI-FIT Framework which can be
used to assist organizations in providing their end-
users with a BI-solution that fits their needs. The
BI-FIT Framework has been validated by carrying
out a case study within six organizations, follow-
ing Yin (2008; 2003). Hevner et al. (2004) also
suggest case studies as an appropriate evaluation
method in design research. After analyzing and
discussing the data gathered during the case stud-
ies, conclusions are drawn and recommendations
for further research will be provided.
end-user fit
The relationship between investment in informa-
tion technology (IT) and its effect (IT-impact)
on organizational performance is a major area
of interest for (IS) researchers and practitioners.
It must be clear that it is not the investment in
technology that is the driver for IT impact, but the
actual usage of the technology (Devaraj & Kohli,
2003). Persuading end-users to adopt information
technologies persists as a major challenge con-
fronting those responsible for implementation. An
important question in this context is: What causes
individual end-users to adopt new information
technologies, and in particular BI-systems? The
term “individual” is used explicitly because this
research starts from the observation that the grow-
ing amount of BI end-users are heterogeneous,
both in the skills they bring to BI-systems and
the demands they place on them (Gile, 2003). The
same IT-system can be seen as successful by one
individual end-user or group but as a failure or
at least problematic by another end-user or group
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