Business Intelligence: Understanding disparity in information interpretation

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to understand how business intelligence and the information it provides is interpreted by two different groups of people - the business users and the technical team in a BI system. To fulfill the purpose of the research an analytical process with an interpretive approach has been used. Through the Gioia methodology the study was conducted as a single case study at a staffing agency located in Sweden with approximately 800 employees. Eight interviews were conducted at the company with four members from the technical team and four members from the business users. The findings of this study shows that two aggregated dimensions have emerged - Use of BI and Nature of BI. The empirical investigation show a clear difference between the technical team and the business users perception of BI, which is highlighted by the emerged aggregated dimensions and the coherent second order themes. To conclude, this demonstrates that there are not only technical challenges with BI, but also intangible challenges. This means that there are disparities in understanding BI, as well as there are disparities in interpreting the information it provides.