Increasingly, big data is proving to be an essential element of economic growth. An ever-expanding body of evidence points to the crucial role of big data across sectors in informing strategic decisions. Across the private, public, and civil society sectors, big data is becoming an essential component of business operations. Big data is seen as offering the potential to increase productivity and reduce wastage.
This report draws on interviews with 28 business leaders and stakeholder representatives from the UK and US in order to answer the following questions: How is (big) data being used; what is a ‘big data business model’? What are the main obstacles to exploitation of big data in the economy? What can and should be done to mitigate these challenges and ensure that the opportunities provided by big data are realised?
Former Research Fellow
Dr. Monica Bulger recently completed a Research Fellowship at the Oxford Internet Institute and is currently a consultant on child protection and digital media literacy for multi-national organisations including UNICEF and the BBC.
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Greg Taylor's research focuses on the economics of competition policy and regulation for digital and technology markets.
Senior Research Fellow
Ralph Schroeder has interests in shared virtual environments and the sociology of science and technology. His current research is related to digital media and populism, climate change online, AI and social theory, and the internet in China and India.