The role of management in fostering analytics: the shift from intuition to analytics-based decision-making

ABSTRACT Research shows that many firms still make business critical decisions intuitively, despite clear evidence that analytics-based decision-making is likely more effective in creating corporate and social value. With the aim of providing actionable guidance to firms on how to accomplish the shift to analytics-based decision-making, this paper sheds light on the management factors that prove critical in this context. An in-depth single-site case study was conducted with a large publicly listed German manufacturing company. Building on 22 semi-structured interviews, this empirical study identifies six factors that play a critical role in establishing analytics-based decision-making: management behaviour, top management and strategy, analytics infrastructure, organisation and governance, HR management and development, and culture. This study forms the basis for further scientific research on the role of firm management in the transitional phase. Furthermore, it provides firm leaders with a systemised and practical framework to structure firm efforts to establish data-based decision making.