Towards an understanding of the role of business intelligence systems in organisational knowing

Recent advances in information technology (IT), such as the advent of business intelligence (BI) systems, have increased the ability of organisations to collect and analyse data to support decisions. There is little focus to date, however, on how BI systems might play a role in organisational knowledge creation – in organisational knowing. We develop a conceptual framework of organisational knowing based on a synthesis of the literature, and use this as a framework to investigate how BI systems facilitate knowing in a case organisation. We identify two practices triggered by BI systems that distinguish them from prior applications of IT: the ability to initiate problem articulation and dialogue, and that of data selection (e.g. to address information needs of organisational decision makers at different managerial levels). This study provides empirical evidence of the performative outcome of BI systems in relation to organisational knowing through the practices of articulation and data selection. It provides a practice perspective on BI and focuses on the role of BI systems in organisational knowing thereby opening up a new departure for BI research that considers the implications of BI systems in organisations with actual practice in mind.