Big and Lean is Beautiful: A Conceptual Framework for Data-based Learning in Marketing Management

While Big Data offer marketing managers information that is high in volume, variety, velocity, and veracity (the 4Vs), these features wouldn’t necessarily improve their decision-making. Managers would still be vulnerable to confirmation bias, control illusions, communication problems, and confidence issues (the 4Cs). The authors argue that traditional remedies for such biases don’t go far enough and propose a lean start-up approach to data-based learning in marketing management. Specifically, they focus on the marketing analytics component of Big Data and how adaptations of the lean start-up methodology can be used in some combination with such analytics to help marketing managers improve their decision-making and innovation process. Beyond the often discussed technical obstacles and operational costs associated with handling Big Data, this chapter contributes by analyzing the various learning and decision-making problems that can emerge once the 4Vs of Big Data have materialized.