How Business Intelligence Creates Value: An Empirical Investigation

Theoretical Development

DSS for aiding organizational and managerial decision-making processes started to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s. BI, as an overarching term for DSS that are based primarily on integrated organizational data resources, was introduced as a set of concepts and methods to improve fact-based decision making. BI tools aim at improving the quality and accuracy of information used in decision making processes by simplifying the storage, identification, and analysis of information (Negash, 2004). BI systems let users at all organizational levels access data, interact with it, and analyze it toward improving business performance, discovering new opportunities, and increasing efficiency. Well-designed BI systems offer a global view of the entire organization, permit analysis of business activities from multiple perspectives, and enable rapid reactions to changes in the business environment (Matei, 2010).