In the article “Big data consumer analytics and the transformation of marketing”, the authors S.

Erevelles, N. Fukawa, and L. Swayne examine the relationship between big data and different
marketing activities. From the resource-based-theory, the authors build a conceptual framework.
The three main explored resources are physical, human and organizational capital.

From the previous researches’ findings, the authors define big data as well as its impact on
marketing activities. As a result, a conceptual framework is introduced, in order to answer two
questions: when and how big data supports firms to create better value and competitive advantage?
And what resources do big data require to explore?. The consumer big data is summed up by five
Vs: volume, as rowdies big data measured; velocity, as rich, insightful, and real-time data; variety,
as the combination of structured transactional data and unstructured behavioral data; veracity as the
awareness of data quality; and value of data. The resources for big data are physical capital
resources, as softwares or data collection platform; human capital resources, as data scientists,
strategists; and organizational capital resources, as firms’ structure. The abilities of adapting to
change (dynamic capability) and predicting the future trends (adaptive capability) are gained from
exploring big data for consumer insights. It is suggested that ignorance-based view is more
beneficial than knowledge-based view when it comes to consumer big data as it creates curiousity,
creativity and avoiding biases in analytic process. Big data creates values in product, place, price
and promotion.

The main findings of the research provide three processes from resource-based theory as data
collecting and storing process, analyzing process, and applying process. The findings also point out
the importance of identifying hidden consumer insights for predicting future trends and
requirements. Last but not least, the authors stress the crucial proposition of ignorance-based view
in big data implication. From managerial point of view, firms should link the process to real-time
issue, develop organizational culture for improving ignorance-based view.

The main strengths of the article is clear structure of literature usage. The authors use various
previous researches to lead readers from the big data definition, to big data characteristics, big data
requirements and big data implications. As the result, readers can easily understand what is big data,
why do we need big data and how to achieve and use big data. Additionally, the authors are able to
sum up the whole article within an understand able figure. The authors also clarify various
questions for future research such as big data should be analyze in or out of the firms, big data
research methods and the implication of physiological data. However, the research method is
unclear and poorly described, which leads to questionable trustworthiness for future apply.

The authors stated that “ignorance-based view coupled with creative intensity is essential for firms
to benefit from big data” and “creative intensity helps firms build knowledge-based resources that
are relatively difficult for competitors to imitate”. However, knowledge-based view also overlook
adaptive capability. Therefore, How can firms balance the its knowledge-based view? As firm’s
knowledge is built constantly by ignorance-based view and creative intensity, how to prevent
firms becoming overconfident with its knowledge?