" Big Data ": a profitable investment?

" The European enterprises could significantly increase their performance by better taking advantage of " big data ", those available data concerning consumers’ behaviours. Yet, implementing this new type of marketing cannot be taken for granted. It requires complementary and highly advanced competencies and some adequate legal framework. Studying the way they are currently being used, particularly in the United States can lead to identifying the prerequisites for successful strategies ", Samppa Suoniemi explains.

The young researcher who holds a Doctor’s degree from Turku university in Finland (2013), has just been granted a European Marie Curie fellowship to continue his research work at the Toulouse Centre for Research in Management, over a two-year period with the marketing professor Lars Meyer-Waarden.

" The European Union 170, 000€ funding will enable us to compare French and American corporate practices in a number of economic sectors ", Samppa Suonimi points out.

Why is it worthwhile for SMEs?
 

" The investments required in technological infrastructures should not be underestimated ", the young researcher warns. Human resources are also a key variable. Adequately trained professionals are too few. " Resorting to big data also demands a significant change in management paradigms. In conventional companies, decision-making often derives from the management’s experience and intuition. Relying on data to steer one’s strategies requires some degree of humility ", he says

" The main question is also to assess to what extent relying on big data may prove profitable. Large multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola or Kellogs, track down hypermarket consumers via their loyalty cards and thanks to sensors placed in departments. They also buy data concerning Internet users’ behaviours from Google or Facebook and determine their marketing strategies in accordance with the collected information. We are going to study what kind of benefit medium-sized enterprises can derive from such investments ", Samppa Suoniemi declares.