Perceived Usefulness of Business Intelligence Tools
Antti, Mia (2018-03-12)
Perceived Usefulness of Business Intelligence Tools
Antti, Mia
(12.03.2018)
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Turun yliopisto
Tiivistelmä
The development of information technology has changed the relationships between corporations and consumers as well as suppliers and buyers – we could even say that information is power. At the same time, investments in information systems are under critical observation to justify their value to organizations as many companies are still struggling with unreliable management accounting information systems. Although positive impacts of Business Intelligence investments to management accounting and decision-making have been recognized in practice and in research, there is still only a limited amount of qualitative research. The objective of this research is to take previous quantitative researches further by executing a qualitative research on perceived usefulness of Business Intelligence tools from perspectives of sellers and buyers of the tools. A qualitative research enables an in-depth understanding of the topic and overcomes typical problems for quantitative researches.
The research was carried out as a case study and the data was collected through theme interviews. The evaluation of previous quantitative researches led to the following research framework: system quality, information quality, service quality, intention to use, user satisfaction, individual impact, workgroup impact, and organizational impact. The results show that the eight dimensions are interdependent and interrelated, just like suggested in previous researches, as positive perceptions regarding system quality, information quality, and service quality had a positive impact on intention use and satisfaction. Similarly, negative perceptions regarding the three dimensions influenced negatively on intention to use and satisfaction. Perceptions regarding intention to use and user satisfaction influenced on each other and, furthermore, on individual impact and workgroup impact which both had in the end some organizational impact.
The research concludes that although today’s Business Intelligence tools are characterized by easy-to-use tools, users with basic Business Intelligence knowledge are still not capable to use them without support from IT. Deficiencies in information quality seem to come from operational systems used as a source of information and from human actions, meaning they are not caused by the Business Intelligence tool itself. Lack of resources is not anymore only Business Intelligence adopting firms’ problem but also Business Intelligence vendors’ problem due to high employee turnover. Moreover, Business Intelligence tools’ technical knowledge is not enough as the best Business Intelligence consultants are the ones who has both technical and accounting knowledge.
The research was carried out as a case study and the data was collected through theme interviews. The evaluation of previous quantitative researches led to the following research framework: system quality, information quality, service quality, intention to use, user satisfaction, individual impact, workgroup impact, and organizational impact. The results show that the eight dimensions are interdependent and interrelated, just like suggested in previous researches, as positive perceptions regarding system quality, information quality, and service quality had a positive impact on intention use and satisfaction. Similarly, negative perceptions regarding the three dimensions influenced negatively on intention to use and satisfaction. Perceptions regarding intention to use and user satisfaction influenced on each other and, furthermore, on individual impact and workgroup impact which both had in the end some organizational impact.
The research concludes that although today’s Business Intelligence tools are characterized by easy-to-use tools, users with basic Business Intelligence knowledge are still not capable to use them without support from IT. Deficiencies in information quality seem to come from operational systems used as a source of information and from human actions, meaning they are not caused by the Business Intelligence tool itself. Lack of resources is not anymore only Business Intelligence adopting firms’ problem but also Business Intelligence vendors’ problem due to high employee turnover. Moreover, Business Intelligence tools’ technical knowledge is not enough as the best Business Intelligence consultants are the ones who has both technical and accounting knowledge.