How Customer-Oriented Companies Create Value with Data - Examining the Customer Insight Process

Abstract: Today organisations have more information at their fingertips than ever before. While managers have started to realise the benefits inherent in exploiting this phenomenon, often referred to as Big Data, the discussion so far has focused on technical solutions. However, there appears to be a strong, current drive to improve the understanding of the managerial aspects. This fuelled our decision to examine how organisations create value with the customer data they have available. Specifically, we examine how customer-oriented organisations work with customer data, focusing on the responsibilities and capabilities that are employed in order to create value. Based on customer orientation literature and the Resource-Based Theory we conduct a qualitative case study with four case companies. We outline a customer insight process with six phases: Pre-Phase, Formulate Hypothesis, Put the Puzzle Together, Make Recommendations, Share Findings, and Take Action. For each phase, we also (1) identify clearly delineated responsibilities for two roles involved in the process, the researcher and the client, as well as how these interplay and (2) identify resources and capabilities that these two roles employ. Especially the need to employ hygiene factors and the value-increasing function of trust enablers and networking enablers are highlighted, since they support the organisation's creation of sustained competitive advantage. Finally, we identify two propositions pertaining to the organisational context of customer-oriented organisations. All in all, our outlined customer insight process exemplifies but also extends existing theory. More importantly, we take a first step towards explaining how to handle the managerial challenges of exploiting Big Data.