The information systems (IS) literature has long emphasized the positive impact of information provided by business intelligence systems (BIS) on decision-making, particularly when organizations operate in highly competitive environments. Evaluating the effectiveness of BIS is vital to our understanding of the value and efficacy of management actions and investments. Yet, while IS success has been well-researched, our understanding of how BIS dimensions are interrelated and how they affect BIS use is limited. In response, we conduct a quantitative survey-based study to examine the relationships between maturity, information quality, analytical decision-making culture, and the use of information for decision-making as significant elements of the success of BIS. Statistical analysis of data collected from 181 medium and large organizations is combined with the use of descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. Empirical results link BIS maturity to two segments of information quality, namely content and access quality. We therefore propose a model that contributes to understanding of the interrelationships between BIS success dimensions. Specifically, we find that BIS maturity has a stronger impact on information access quality. In addition, only information content quality is relevant for the use of information while the impact of the information access quality is non-significant. We find that an analytical decision-making culture necessarily improves the use of information but it may suppress the direct impact of the quality of the information content.
Evidently the most important research questions in the field of information technology (IT)/information systems (IS) in general involve measuring their business value [54], their success and identifying critical success factors [23]. In a decision-support context, business intelligence systems (BIS) have emerged as a technological solution offering data integration and analytical capabilities to provide stakeholders at various organizational levels with valuable information for their decision-making [76]. In contrast with operational systems, assessing the success of BIS is usually problematic since BIS are as rule enterprise-wide systems where most benefits are long-term, indirect and difficult to measure [69].
The term business intelligence (BI) can refer to various computerized methods and processes of turning data into information and then into knowledge [51], which is eventually used to enhance organizational decision-making [82]. We distinguish the terms BI and BIS and comprehend BIS (or the business intelligence environment[28]) as quality information in well-designed data stores, coupled with business-friendly software tools that provide knowledge workers timely access, effective analysis and intuitive presentation of the right information, enabling them to take the right actions or make the right decisions. We further understand BI as the ability of an organization or business to reason, plan, predict, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend, innovate and learn in ways that increase organizational knowledge, inform decision processes, enable effective actions, and help to establish and achieve business goals[80]. Accordingly, processes, technologies, tools, applications, data, databases, dashboards, scorecards and OLAP are all claimed to play a role in enabling the abilities that define BI [80]; however, they are only the means to BI — not the intelligence itself.
Much research has been done in the area of assessing IS success [8] with the McLean & DeLone multidimensional IS Success Model [22] and [23] being one of the most often used, cited and even criticized works. Categories such as desired characteristics of the IS which produces the information (i.e. system quality), the information product for desired characteristics (i.e. IQ), and the recipients' consumption of the information products (i.e. information use) have been referred to as common IS success dimensions [22]. The model emphasizes the understanding of the connections between the different dimensions of IS success. While value (“net benefits” in the McLean & DeLone success model) is the final success variable, use of the system is fundamental for certain “net benefits” to occur.
While considerable evidence demonstrates the importance of BI and BIS for organizations, Wixom and Watson suggest the benefits of BIS have not been adequately researched and thus need further attention [84]. Ranjan [65] qualitatively explored the business justifications and requirements for incorporating BI in organizations. Elbashir et al. [27] researched the performance effects of BIS use at the business process and organizational levels. Asserting that the implementation of a BIS is a complex undertaking requiring considerable resources, Yeoh et al. [85] proposed a CSF framework consisting of factors and associated contextual elements crucial for BIS implementation. However, no study has provided an in-depth analysis of BIS success. Consequently, our study's main objective is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationships between BIS success dimensions, focusing on the variables affecting BIS use.
Different types of IS require specific success models [60] and users prefer different success measures depending on the type of system being evaluated, therefore we adapted the general IS success model to reflect the specifics of BIS. We pay special attention to: a) information quality (IQ); b) the use of information in business processes; and c) the factors affecting the level of use of information, provided by BIS, in business processes and thus the creation of business value. Although IQ is believed to be one of the most important characteristics that determine the degree to which available information is used in organizations, research offers mixed support for the relationship between IQ and its use [60]. IQ generally deals with two main aspects, namely the content of information and its accessibility [29] with different means of BIS impact on the two and with different sets of quality problems that potentially impact information use. Although some of these differences are implicitly recognized in previous IS studies [83], some of the IQ access characteristics have been attributed to antecedents of system quality and the relevance is often not explicitly considered as an IQ dimension. Based on the classification about IS effectiveness provided by Seddon et al. [70], the proposed adaption of the McLean & DeLone IS success model is derived from the managers'/owners' aspect, aiming to provide value for the organization and it focuses on a type of IT or IT application, in this case on a BIS.
This study thus brings novel insights regarding the success of BIS and consequently identifies critical success factors of BIS implementation projects through considering specifics of BIS and the inclusion of different segments of IQ and an analytical decision-making culture in the model. We believe that this work contributes to understanding of the interrelationships between BIS success dimensions. From the aspect of IT development and BIS development, it can be expected that evaluation of such a model and interrelationships between its dimensions enables the understanding of problems and key success factors in implementation.
The structure of the paper is as follows. In the next section, the general IS success model is adapted to reflect the specifics of BIS that justify a separate study on BIS. The research model is then conceptualized. The second part of the paper presents the research design, methodology, and results. Finally, the results are discussed, including the implications for BIS theory and practice, while further possible research directions are outlined.
