Rethinking the role of uncertainty and risk in Marketing

Big Data Analytics (BDA) solutions are increasingly applied in marketing, with the aim of transforming data available online to market information and competitive intelligence. When businesses encounter risky situations (calculated risks) complex models using BDA are often the go-to solution. However, there is a still a debate if BDA is the best solution in uncertain situations when unexpected phenomena arise. The present study begins to fill this gap using the Colombian context as evidence and a Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis method (fs-QCA). The focus shifts from a single cause leading to performance to an analysis of different associations of conditions. There are three major findings-first, in a risky environment, BDA is not a unique condition; a combination of data maturity levels, data skills and a data-driven mindset and culture are necessary to obtain good business performance. Second, even in the era of Big Data, large companies still use simple rules (heuristics) to make decisions which improve their performance. Finally, the environmental state (uncertain, certain, risky) is a moderating factor in the choice between BDA or Heuristics. The results indicate marketing managers should use a multi-model approach incorporating both BDA and heuristics.