I Don’t Need Permission,Make My Own Decisions : Hur BI används som beslutsstöd inom svenska SMEs

Sammanfattning: Background and Problem Statement: Effective decision-making based on accurate information iscritical to the survival of organizations. New tools have for many decades been developed to improvedecision-making within organizations, but increasingly dynamic and complex business environmentscontinue to create a need for better data and tools for organizations to be able to make faster and moreprecise decisions.This need has given rise to what is called Business Intelligence (BI), which has become a necessarytool for effective managing decision-making processes because of increasing amounts of data.However, research shows that expected benefits of BI are rarely realized. Previous research has alsoexpressed that further research should be done from the decision-maker’s perspective and from aperspective of small and medium-sized companies, as the amount research with these perspectives islimited. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how Business Intelligence is used for decisionmaking in small and medium-sized companies. Method: To answer the study’s research questions, we conducted a qualitative and interpretive casestudy with twelve underlying analysis objects where we conducted semi-structured interviews withone decision-maker per company in twelve different companies with different industry affiliations.The empirical material has been analyzed and discussed based on previous research and literature insubject areas such as Business Intelligence, Decision-Making, Bounded Rationality and Theory ofTechnology Dominance. Conclusion: The study shows that there are few perceived disadvantages with BI, while advantagessuch as more easily accessible fact-based information, opportunities for versatile data analysis andfaster decisions are highlighted to a greater degree. Despite an overweight to advantages, the studyalso shows several potential disadvantages such as information security-related risks where the scopeand method for making information available to staff and external actors through the BI solution ishighlighted. We also find that analytical decision-making through BI still needs to be combined withfactors such as intuition, judgment, and reason to achieve effective decision-making. The study resultsare concluded in a preliminary model that can be used to better understand the use of BI in small andmedium-sized companies.