Business Intelligence for Small Business: Assessment, Framework & Agenda

Small businesses, businesses with 20 or less personnel, account for a significant proportion of economic activity and it is the economic sector that employs the most people in OECD countries. Small businesses are fundamentally different than larger organizations in their operations and decision-making processes. Business intelligence (BI) is the current approach to management decision support in large organizations. It includes personal decision support, analytics, enterprise reporting, and data warehousing. BI is also arguably the biggest current growth area in IT investment. This paper explores why BI applications are not widely used in small businesses. It develops a research model that may explain BI adoption, or lack of adoption, in small business. A research agenda to investigate this economically important issue is presented.