English abstract
Big data is increasingly recognized as a serious worldwide valuable asset, especially in the Oil and Gas industry. This triggered the attention of business decision makers in the industry to adopt Big Data Analytics (BDA) solutions to help in getting valuable insights from big data and make data-driven decisions.
Therefore, this research aims to explore the contextual factors impacting the intention of Omani Oil and Gas companies to adopt the BDA solutions to make better decisions. It relies on the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework to build a conceptual framework that presents the technological, organizational, and environmental factors.
In order to achieve the research aim, a qualitative research approach was followed using Delphi research method. Seven heterogonous panelists have been selected from different units within an Oil and Gas company in Oman. The panelists consensus has been reached at the third round of Delphi survey.
Two main findings revealed from this study. First, twenty factors have been identified; from which organizational strategy, business framework, and suitability are additional to the TOE framework. Second, data quality has been ranked as the most significant factor.
This research provides three main theoretical contributions to the BDA research area. First, to the best of my knowledge, it is the first study focusing on BDA adoption in the Oil and Gas industry in Oman. Second, this study added three new factors to the TOE framework which have not been highlighted in previous studies. The organizational strategy and business framework factors were added to the organization context and the suitability factor was added to the technological context. Third, the qualitative approach allowed to build a conceptual framework that fits the context of the Oil and Gas industry.
In addition, there are three main practical contributions provided by this study. Firstly, it can be used by researchers, practitioners, and business leaders to improve their technology adoption decision-making process in such uncertain environment. Secondly, the adopters can increase their understanding for extracting maximum
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benefits from BDA solutions whereas non-adopters can understand the BDA determinants under different contexts. Thirdly, BDA service providers can increase their understanding of why some companies decide to adopt BDA solutions, while others in the same industry did not.
