Approaches to Identifying Data Quality Issues: The Role of the Data Broker

ABSTRACTData quality issues are problematic and costly for organizations. Employees (termed “Data Brokers”) must identify data quality issues before data are used for reporting purposes. In five field studies, we investigate how these employees identify these often-hidden data quality issues. Organizations can execute five “checking” approaches: data templates, supervisor validation, data accuracy, data consistency, and data completeness. We discuss each approach, theorize their inter-relationships, and explain their contributions to research and practice.KEYWORDS: Data quality issuesfield studiesdata brokermanual identificationdata curation Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsArif WibisonoArif Wibisono is an Assistant Professor in Information Systems Department, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Indonesia. He received his PhD from Business Information Systems Department, University of College Cork, Ireland (2023), his MS degree in Logistics Information Technology from Pusan National University, Korea (2011) and his BS degree in Information Systems from Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Indonesia (2007). Arif won several scholarships for his studies such as Irish Government Scholarship (GOI) - International Education Scholarship (IES) - 2018, Cork University Business School (CUBS) Scholarship - 2018, Korean Government Scholarship (2008), and Indonesian Directorate of Higher Education (DIKTI) Scholarship (2008). Now, Arif is the Managing Editor for Journal of Decision Systems (Taylor and Francis, UK).David SammonDavid Sammon is a Professor of Information Systems, a self-confessed visual thinker (placing a great value in taxonomical thinking) and works to the adage that “if you can’t draw it, you don’t understand it!” David has 25 years of teaching/research experience in Business Information Systems (BIS), University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. Throughout his career David has designed and directed several educational programmes for postgraduate and executive audiences. Since 2010, David has advocated for the Action Design Research (ADR) approach to applied problem solving. These ADR practices have led to the emergence of the Data Value Map (datavaluemap.com) discursive template (for building shared understanding around data initiatives). David has published his research work in international outlets, such as: Harvard Business Review, Information Systems Journal, Business Horizons, and Information Systems Management. He is also co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Decision Systems. is a Professor of Information Systems, a self-confessed visual thinker (placing a great value in taxonomical thinking) and works to the adage that “if you can’t draw it, you don’t understand it!” David has 25 years of teaching/research experience in Business Information Systems (BIS), University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. Throughout his career David has designed and directed several educational programmes for postgraduate and executive audiences. Since 2010, David has advocated for the Action Design Research (ADR) approach to applied problem solving. These ADR practices have led to the emergence of the Data Value Map (datavaluemap.com) discursive template (for building shared understanding around data initiatives). David has published his research work in international outlets, such as: Harvard Business Review, Information Systems Journal, Business Horizons, and Information Systems Management. He is also co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Decision Systems.Ciara HeavinCiara Heavin is a Professor of Business Information Systems at Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland. Her research focuses on opportunities for using Information Systems (IS) in the global healthcare ecosystem and in digital transformation. Ciara has directed funded research in the investigation, development, and implementation of innovative technology solutions in the health/healthcare domain. She has published articles in several top international IS journals and conference proceedings. Ciara has co-authored three books with Daniel J. Power: Decision Support, Analytics and Business Intelligence, Data-Based Decision Making and Digital Transformation, and Becoming Agile. She is the current Chair of the University Ethics Committee at University College Cork.