What is big data? A consensual definition and a review of key research topics

By Andrea De Mauro, Marco Greco, Michele Grimaldi. AIP Conference Proceedings, 2015

462 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Although Big Data is a trending buzzword in both academia and the industry, its meaning is still shrouded by much conceptual vagueness. The term is used to describe a wide range of concepts: from the technological ability to store, aggregate, and process data, to the cultural shift that is pervasively invading business and society, both drowning in information overload. The lack of a formal definition has led research to evolve into multiple and inconsistent paths. Furthermore, the existing ambiguity among researchers and practitioners undermines an efficient development of the subject. In this paper we have reviewed the existing literature on Big Data and analyzed its previous definitions in order to pursue two results: first, to provide a summary of the key research areas related to the phenomenon, identifying emerging trends and suggesting opportunities for future development; second, to provide a consensual definition for Big Data, by synthesizing common themes of existing works and patterns in previous definitions.

Subfields: Information Systems and Management, Management Information Systems, Management Science and Operations Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ce1b0553c09b725f6fd1fc0b39f2dc7c428d3088

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In Information Systems and Management

In Management Information Systems

In Management Science and Operations Research

Citations in the corpus

Big data analytics capabilities: a systematic literature review and research agenda (2017, methodology): “…tools, and techniques that are employed (Russom 2011; Bharadwaj et al. 2013); while some even go on to describe the type of impact that the analysis and presentation of big data can yield in terms of business value (White 2011; Beyer and Laney 2012; Schroeck et al. 2012; De Mauro et al. 2015).”