The Impact of Big Data on Management Control from Bulgarian Business Perspective
摘要
This paper aims to investigate whether and how Big Data (BD) impacts strategy implementation from a Management Control (MC) perspective in the Bulgarian business context. The study sheds light on the understanding of how and to what extent Big Data Analytics (BDA) capabilities are used in order to achieve the strategic goals of the company. It is well known that the implementation of new technologies such as BDA is of vital importance for business success since they can discover tacit knowledge and information that is potentially useful for better company performance. This paper presents the second part of previous research that was aimed at gathering and analyzing general information concerning BDA implementation in Bulgarian companies. The first part of the research was conducted through a questionnaire survey. The qualitative methodology was chosen for the second part of the research and interviews with managers as data collecting techniques were applied. Three companies were selected from three different economic sectors such as the banking sector, transport sector and retail sector where digital technologies are crucial and could be widely used. For the purposes of this research, Simons’ Levers of Control framework is used since its levers are focused not only on the rational side of Management Control Systems (MCS) such as Diagnostic and Interactive Systems but also on the emotional side such as Belief and Boundary Systems. As a result, a model of BDA interaction with and impact on MCS was developed. The main findings are related to the fact that BDA implementation supports management control in achieving the strategic goals of the company not only because they can impact the rational side of MCS but also because they help managers to gain control over the emotional side through the Boundary and Belief Systems. The trend for companies to become data driven leads to alternation in management control. From formal and coercive control, it becomes more informal and enabling control.