Big Data in organizations: Taking stock of the adoption of Big Data applications in and their impact on organizations in the Netherlands

As digital infrastructures, IT systems and Big Data have been transforming how firms, industries, and ecosystems operate (Bharadwaj et al. 2013), researchers in turn have begun to explore how rapidly advancing digitalization changes the dynamic of value creation at the firm and industry levels (Nambisan & Sawhney, 2011) and how it changes organizational designs (Galbraith 2014). As a field, however, “organization studies has only just started to problematize the fundamental inter-relation of digital technology, media and organizing” and we lack sound data about the actual breadth and depth of these changes. This study therefore explores the state of the implementation of Big Data applications in a wide range of organizations in the Netherlands as one of the most advanced societies in Europe when it comes to digitalization and the impact on organizational structures and processes. We present results from a questionnaire among 210 organizations and 15 qualitative interviews. Our findings show that most organizations are still in an experimental phase at best and that we can observe an evolutionary model of technology adoption.