The Link between Big Data and Innovation in the Big Data Era: The Roles of the Building Blocks of Innovation

Innovation is the constructive force that guarantees organizational survival, growth, and competitiveness in a dynamic and constantly changing business environment. Innovation is important in solving problems and it gives an organization a competitive advantage. This article examined the pathways that lead to innovation in the era where big data sets are generated due to digitalization. An integrative literature review technique was employed to examine big data's roles in innovation. The article synthesized ideas from extant literature about big data, big data analytics, data analytics capabilities, and innovation. The findings indicate that data-driven innovation requires deliberate and targeted processes that take into cognizance some critical elements that can be regarded as building blocks. Thus, there are building blocks that are critical to data-driven innovation without which innovative processes and the outcomes of innovative processes will be unsuccessful. The building blocks of innovation are big data, big data analytics, big data analytics capabilities, insights, and decision-making. In addition, this article proposes the definitions of big data analytics and big data analytics capabilities. This article explains the linkage between big data and innovation, and presents theoretical contributions about innovation, and other valuable insights for improving practice.