Big Data and Start-up Businesses

Start-up companies live in a dynamic and competitive environment. Many start-up companies through their formation work to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success of this venture is not guaranteed. The start-up company is constrained by factors such as capital, commitment, support, competition and demand. Technology has been one tool that start-ups use to add value to their offerings. Technology has many benefits such as simplifying task and generating data. The data generated may be line of business data which is transactional data or customer behavioral data. These data hold intelligence about the business and its elements which can be leveraged for many benefits. The kind of data generated depends on what technology is implemented as part of the business model (BM). The BM reflects how the organisation obtains value. It dictates the information and technology assets needed for operation. The research is a single case study of an online ecommerce store as a start-up. The start-up has six departments which are the units of analysis; the units of observation are the employees. Data was collected through face to face interviews with purposefully selected employees, the collected data were analysed to reveal findings. The findings showed that the employees had a narrowed definition of big. This is true for employees who were aware of big data as a concept; this cannot be said of other employees who were unaware of BD. The disparity paves the way to argue that the organisation does not have a big data strategy for integration or application of BD within the production environment. The study concludes by proposing a hybrid data approach which integrates a more modern approach to data management which include the use of non-relational approaches to augment data management.