Dev.SN

In a Harvard Business Review article (free access) based on multiple case studies, the authors explain that big data often does not live up to its hype. Through a series of examples sourced from their data, they nuance some of the most commonly purported benefits of big data, highlighting some of the biggest challenges companies face when trying to rely on evidence-based decision making.

The biggest reason that investments in big data fail to pay off, though, is that most companies don’t do a good job with the information they already have. They don’t know how to manage it, analyze it in ways that enhance their understanding, and then make changes in response to new insights

While big data is often studied from a technological standpoint, their observations and recommendations focus on the "softer" side of technology when it is actually implemented in an organization.

Much of the hype around big data focuses on getting more information and more people to analyze it. But the opportunity presented by the information economy is best tapped by getting all [emphasis original] people to use data more effectively