Innovation, consisting of invention, adoption, and deployment of new technology and associated process improvements, is a key source of competitive advantages. Big Data is an innovation that has been gaining prominence in retailing and other industries. In fact, managers working in retail supply chain member firms (that is, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, logistics providers, and other service providers) have increasingly been trying to understand what Big Data entails, what it may be used for, and how to make it an integral part of their businesses. This report covers Big Data use, with focus on applications for retail supply chains. The authors’ findings suggest that Big Data use in retail supply chains is still generally elusive. Although most managers have reported initial, and in some cases some significant efforts in analyzing large sets of data for decision making, various challenges confine these data to a range of use spanning traditional, transactional data.
