As digital technologies continue to shape our world, data and data analytics have become important for organisations across all industries. Data is used to improve decision-making and performance, yet organisations continue to face challenges. These include issues relates to data quality, a shortage of skilled personnel and cultural misalignment.
Although organisations resort to short-term fixes, such as investing in data-related resources, this approach does not necessarily yield a promising return on investment. Therefore, the dissertation investigates the research question: How can business organisations enhance their DAC for value realisation?
The dissertation addressed this question using qualitative methods, including data collected from 20 semi-structured interviews with data professionals in Finland, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States. Additionally, a case study was conducted in a manufacturing company, which involved nine semi-structured interviews and other data sources.
The findings suggest that organisations should go beyond purely the technical aspects of data analytics by integrating managerial and organisational elements. These include leveraging other organisational capabilities to facilitate DAC, harnessing existing cultural values that foster DAC development, and improving the quality of resources related to data, system and services. Moreover, the process of using data to create value is both a social and technical phenomenon, involving interactions among actors, tasks, technologies and structures. Enhancing DAC requires learning at the individual, group and organisational levels. This enhancement can increase revenue, improve decision-making, cut costs, foster a new data-driven culture, and enable novel digital services that enhance customer satisfaction.
“These interactions reflect the synergetic, causally ambiguous and idiosyncratic nature of DAC in organisations. Consequently, it is very difficult for an external organisation to precisely replicate or imitate the process of value realisation through DAC enhancement,” Madhala says.
DAC is increasingly relevant for organisations, as it can shape customer experiences, help organisations adapt to digital transformation, and inform ongoing discourse on emerging technologies, such as generative AI and large language models.
Public defence on Friday 4 April
The doctoral dissertation of MSc (Tech.) Prashanth Madhala in the field of information and knowledge management titled Enhancing Data Analytics Capabilities for Value Realization in Organizations will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Management and Business at Tampere University at 12.00 on Friday 4 April 2025, on the Hervanta campus in the Festia building, auditorium Pieni sali 1 (address: Korkeakoulunkatu 8, Tampere). The Opponent will be Professor Alain Yee Loong Chong from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, China. The Custos will be Associate Professor Hongxiu Li from Tampere University.