2016/03/22 by Andrea De Mauro, Marco Greco, Michele Grimaldi · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Computer Science · Decision Sciences · #Big Data Technologies and Applications #Big Data and Business Intelligence #Big Data and Digital Economy
paper · doi:10.1108/lr-06-2015-0061
openalex publication_date 2016/03/22 · crossref created 2016/03/22 · crossref issued 2016/04/04 · crossref published 2016/04/04 · crossref published-print 2016/04/04 · crossref deposited 2025/07/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the most prominent research areas connected with “Big Data” and propose a thorough definition of the term. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have analysed a conspicuous corpus of industry and academia articles linked with Big Data to find commonalities among the topics they treated. The authors have also compiled a survey of existing definitions with a view of generating a more solid one that encompasses most of the work happening in the field. Findings – The main themes of Big Data are: information, technology, methods and impact. The authors propose a new definition for the term that reads as follows: “Big Data is the Information asset characterized by such a High Volume, Velocity and Variety to require specific Technology and Analytical Methods for its transformation into Value.” Practical implications – The formal definition that is proposed can enable a more coherent development of the concept of Big Data, as it solely relies on the essential strands of current state-of-the-art and is coherent with the most popular definitions currently used. Originality/value – This is among the first structured attempts of building a convincing definition of Big Data. It also contains an original exploration of the topic in connection with library management.