Is Big Data the next Big game changer? Impact on Customer services, Marketing and Ethics

In the last 5 years, quite a few studies have focused on the implication that the use of Big data may enhance firms’ performance by better streamlining resources and customer services. There is a need for more research focused on understanding how big data influences marketing and customer services and furthermore, explores the ethical aspects of big data applications and processing. To do so, we used a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with two big data specialists in the IT services industry. Improved customer services, product offerings and tailor-made solutions to serve individuals’ needs are some key insights proposed for Big data usage in the specific industry. Then, ethical issues such as data ownership, customer identification, consent for handling and transferring data to third parties emerged. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings in conjunction to the published literature.