Business Intelligence and Marketing Insights in an Era of Big Data: The Q-sorting Approach

The purpose of this study is to qualitatively identify the typologies and characteristics of the big data marketing strategy in major companies that are taking advantage of the big data business in Korea. Big data means piles accumulated from converging platforms such as computing infrastructures, smart devices, social networking and new media, and big data is also an analytic technique itself. Numerous enterprises have grown conscious that big data can be a most significant resource or capability since the issue of big data recently surfaced abruptly in Korea. Companies will be obliged to design their own implementing plans for big data marketing and to customize their own analytic skills in the new era of big data, which will fundamentally transform how businesses operate and how they engage with customers, suppliers, partners and employees. This research employed a Q-study, which is a methodology, model, and theory used in 'subjectivity' research to interpret professional panels' perceptions or opinions through in-depth interviews. This method includes a series of q-sorting analysis processes, proposing 40 stimuli statements (q-sample) compressed out of about 60 (q-population) and explaining the big data marketing model derived from in-depth interviews with 20 marketing managers who belong to major companies(q-sorters). As a result, this study makes fundamental contributions to proposing new findings and insights for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and policy makers that need guidelines or direction for future big data business.