Big data approaches and outcome of information asymmetry: Opportunities for future research

Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. The purpose of this paper is to advocate reorientation of current managerial practices in the light of growing reliance on Big Data strategies by contemporary firms, to make them more consumer-centric in nature. Big data strategies by their very nature and modalities lead to heightened levels of information asymmetry which by default have the capacity to disempower the very user that contributes towards the data driven insights. The fundamental driver for writing this paper is not to criticise big data strategies per se, but to suggest; it is merely a tool which can be equally used for consumer entrapment, as well as consumer empowerment. This paper wishes to contribute to the intellectual debate among academics, policy maker, and practitioners alike; en-route for a type of big data-driven managerial orientation that balances the consumers’ right to market-based transparency, and the enterprise’s need for economic viability.