The impact model of business intelligence on decision support and organizational benefits

Abstract

Purpose – Decision support (DS), as a traditional management concept, have had a remarkable role in competitiveness or survival of organizations and nowadays, business intelligence (BI), as a brand modern impression, has various contributions in supporting decision-making process. Although, a variety of benefits are expected to arise from BI functions, researches, and models that determining the effect of BI functions on the decisional and organizational benefits are rare. The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between BI functions, DS benefits, and organizational benefits in context of decision environment. Design/methodology/approach – This research conducts a quantitative survey-based study to represent the relationship between BI capabilities, decision support benefits, and organizational benefits in context of decision environment. On this basis, the partial least squares (PLS) technique employs a sample of 228 firms from different industries located in Middle-East countries. Findings – The findings confirm the existence of meaningful relationship between BI functions, DS benefits, and organizational benefits by supporting 15 out of 16 main hypotheses. Essentially, this research provides an insightful understanding about which capabilities of BI have strongest impact on the outcome benefits. Originality/value – The results can provide effective and useful insights for investors and business owners to utilize more appropriate BI tools and functions to reach more idealistic organizational advantages. Also it enables managers to better understand the application of BI functions in the process of achieving the specified managerial support benefits.