Big Data and the Future of R&D Management

OVERVIEW: This study explores the concept of big data and whether, and to what extent, it might affect R&D management in the future. Through extensive discussions to dissect the nature of big data and to achieve a common understanding of what it represents, a research framework was constructed to analyze the impact of big data based on its potential to inform, enable, and transform or disrupt R&D management across four dimensions: strategy, people, technology, and process integration. A literature review, interviews with experts, and case studies of organizations using big data demonstrate that this phenomenon will have significant implications for R&D and innovation management, although the nature and extent of that impact is somewhat uneven among different industry sectors.