Managing The Data Resource: A Contingency Perspective

Today, corporations are placing increasing emphasis on the management of data. To learn more about effective approaches to “managing the data resource, ” case studies of 31 data management efforts in 20 diverse firms have been conducted. The major finding is that there is no single, dominant approach to improving the management of data. Rather, firms have adopted multiple approaches that appear to be very diverse in (1) business objective, (2) organizational scope, (3) planning method, and (4) “product,“ i.e., deliverable produced. The dominant business objective for successful action is improved managerial information; most data management efforts are “targeted“ without a formal data planning process; and the dominant product was “information databases.“ In addition, several key organizational issues must be addressed when undertaking any data management effort.