The transition towards becoming an analytics-driven bank: an action research investigation into the users’ perspective to the end of enhancing the adoption of interactive analysis applications

Digital transformation gaining pace across the globe and an increasing emphasis on evidence-based organisational decision making thanks to the generation and availability of vast amounts of data and the means for processing it have become two important features of the business world organisations are operating in. Against this backdrop, understanding how to successfully implement and manage the changes in relation to how data is exploited to support business decisions and actions has gained even more importance in organisations, including the one in which this research project has been undertaken. As such, this professional practice-based doctoral research project explores the management of organisational changes towards becoming an analytics-driven organisation, in the context of a mid-scale private Bank, which is a member of a major international financial services group, in Turkey. The focus of the exploration is on the changes related to the implementation and adoption of visual analytics applications as the new means of access to information and insights from data to support business decisions and actions.

The research has been conducted through a span of 4 years, from 2016 to 2020, as an insider research project by the researcher, who is a senior manager in the organisation. The research methodology employed for this research project is action research, bringing together change-oriented business actions and research through iterative action research cycles, aimed at generating new, professional practice-based knowledge as a contribution to the literature.

The research process has revealed that while target users were initially enthusiastic about the new means of information access and related changes, their openness to change concerning this change initiative was related to a number of factors, including their perceptions of the usability and usefulness of the new platforms. Contextual factors such as the organisational data environment and organisational culture also emerged as factors with an impact on the successful implementation of the changes, reflecting the tension between the Bank’s traditionally more prudent, conservative genes on one hand, and its declared values and aspirations emphasising creativity and innovation on the other.

The research has been concluded with significant changes in the approach with which visual analytics applications are designed and developed in the organisation, the implementation and roll-out of a new visual analytics platform with enhanced mobile and self-service analytics capabilities, and a new model representing the approach for the successful management of the visual analytics-related organisational changes in the context of this research project.