Digital traces for business intelligence: A case study of mobile telecoms service brands in Greece
Journal of Enterprise Information Management
ISSN: 1741-0398
Article publication date: 4 February 2014
Abstract
Purpose
Data from social media (SM) has grown exponentially and created new opportunities for businesses to supplement their business intelligence (BI). However, there are many different platforms all of which are in a constant state of evolution. The purpose of this paper is to describe a generic methodology for the gathering of data from SM and transforming it into valuable BI.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is termed virtual excavation and builds on the similarities between the manipulation of technological artefacts virtual communities using various forms of SM and the excavation and analysis of physical artefacts found in archaeological settlements.
Findings
The paper reports on a case study using this technique that looks at the Facebook fan pages of three mobile telecommunications service providers in Greece. The paper identifies many of the standard BI indicators as well as demonstrating that additional information relating to cross-page use can be collected by looking at how users manipulate artefact such as the “like” button in Facebook.
Research limitations/implications
Although the methodology is widely applicable, the paper only reports on the analysis of one platform, Facebook, and is heavily reliant on visualization tools. Future work will examine different platforms and different tools for analysis.
Practical implications
The paper discusses some of the ways in which this approach could be used and suggests some areas in which it might be applied.
Originality/value
The approach of using virtual excavations to extract BI from virtual communities in online SM offers a systematic approach for dealing with a variety of information from a variety of different media that is not found in techniques based on information systems or management science.
Keywords
Citation
Milolidakis, G., Akoumianakis, D. and Kimble, C. (2014), "Digital traces for business intelligence: A case study of mobile telecoms service brands in Greece", Journal of Enterprise Information Management, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 66-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-09-2012-0061
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited