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Introduction
“Big Data” is industry’s hottest buzzword (see Waller and Fawcett, 2013). Consultants proclaim that Big Data will revolutionize industry and decision making. Current investments suggest Big Data’s importance: International Data Corporation “predicts that the market for Big Data will reach $16.1 billion in 2014, grow six times faster than the overall IT market[1].” Still, some practitioners fear that Big Data’s value is exaggerated and view it as little more than an extension of forecasting or traditional marketing research. Unfortunately, as is the case with many hot topics and buzzwords, supply chain research with useful implications is lacking. “[T]here is very little published management scholarship that tackles the challenges of using such tool; or better yet, [that] explores the promise and opportunities for new theories and practices that Big Data might bring about” (George et al., 2014, p. 321). In fact, there is almost no consistency in defining Big Data, identifying its purpose, or establishing its role in supply chain management. Thanks to a grant from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, we seek answers to questions about whether supply chain partners employ Big Data in supply chain strategy, the theoretical origins of Big Data’s potential to influence supply chain performance, and the obstacles to developing its potential.
Given the scarcity of research on Big Data as a supply chain construct, it is well suited to qualitative exploration. The strength of qualitative research is that it provides insights regarding difficult-to-perceive issues in supply chain management and logistics (SCMLs) (Mangan et al., 2004; Näslund, 2002). Estimates of the use of qualitative methods in SCM research vary widely. Golicic and Davis (2012) note that “[…] the reported frequency of studies using qualitative methods varies a great deal; this is likely due to the different journals included in the different reviews. One review reports qualitative methods in as few as 10 percent of the articles, and one finds 51 percent of the studies they examined to use qualitative methods (this particular study included any journal in which ‘supply chain management’ was a subject of the article)” (p. 729). However, Fawcett and Waller (2011) estimate that only 10-20 percent of published articles in SCML embrace qualitative methods. In general, qualitative research is considered effective in addressing...