A Descriptive Big Data Model Using Grounded Theory

Big Data is an emerging research topic. The term remains fuzzy and jeopardizes to become an umbrella term. Straight forward investigations are inhibited since the research field is not well defined, yet. This paper executes expert interviews to identify a common understanding. Hereby, the findings are coded and conceptualized until a descriptive Big Data model is developed by using Grounded Theory. It becomes evident that Big Data is use case driven and forms an interdisciplinary research field. By classifying several Big Data papers it gets obvious that not all of them belong to this research field. The paper contributes to the intensive discussion about the term Big Data in illustrating the underlying area of discourse. A classification to set the research area apart from others can be achieved to support a goal oriented research in future.