Winning the Hearts and Minds of Business Intelligence Users: The Role of Metadata

Abstract

Business Intelligence (BI) applications are strategic decision support systems that are significantly underutilized in many organizations. We propose that adoption and use can be improved by designing BI applications that provide users with high-quality metadata (i.e. information about the meaning, quality, location, and lineage of decision support data). Metadata’s value is that it positively influences user attitudes towards data as measured by cognition and affect.

Keywords:

• business intelligence
• metadata
• user attitudes
• cognition
• affect

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neil Foshay

Neil Foshay is a tenured faculty member in the Department of Information Systems in the Schwartz School of Business at St. Francis Xavier University. His research interests are in the areas of business intelligence (BI), metadata management, and user adoption of technology. Dr. Foshay teaches classes in Enterprise Systems, Database Management, Business Intelligence, Systems Analysis, and System Design. He has over 25 years of IT consulting experience, including 17 years focused on business intelligence. He has provided strategic BI consulting services to organizations such as Apple, IBM, Honda, Caterpillar, and Walt Disney World.

Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor holds degrees from Queen’s University Belfast, including a PhD in Manufacturing Engineering and Management. Before taking up an academic career, he worked in aerospace, public utilities, and government organizations, latterly advising firms on the implementation of new technologies and techniques for productivity improvement. He was awarded a Chair at Queen’s University and then took up his professorial appointment in Operations and Information Systems at Bradford University School of Management in 1996. His research interests focus on business improvement techniques and technologies such as Performance Measurement, Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality Management, Business Intelligence, and Knowledge Management Systems.

Avinandan Mukherjee

Avinandan Mukherjee is Professor and Chairperson of the Marketing Department in the Business School at Montclair State University. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing. Dr. Mukherjee is an expert on Digital Marketing, Services Marketing, and Healthcare Management. He has published more than 100 scholarly articles in academic journals, conference proceedings, edited books, and monographs. His research has been published in leading international journals such as the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Communications of the ACM, Service Industries Journal, and the European Journal of Marketing.