Big Data and Digital Marketing in the Sharing Economy

Abstract

‘Big data’ refers to datasets that are continuously generated from many sources and can be fully structured or completely unstructured (Sheng et al., 2017: 98). Big data is considered beneficial because its effective use can improve revenue management, enhance market research, improve customer experience, and help with reputation management (Yallop & Seraphin, 2020). This chapter contributes to an understanding of the opportunities and risks of big data use in digital marketing activity for sharing economy businesses. It provides information on the characteristics and processes of big data and maps its sources. It critically assesses how big data is used in digital marketing and aligns big data techniques to the marketing challenges facing sharing economy businesses. Then the chapter summarizes the core critical debates surrounding big data use and identifies the barriers to generating business value from a range of digital marketing techniques, before concluding with a discussion of the managerial and policy implications.