Table 3 Coding themes and supporting... | Emerald Publishing

Table 3

Coding themes and supporting quotes

Second-order theme	BA context	Supporting first-order quotation
BA has limitations in addressing problems	Customer engagement	“One of the metrics of course is the success rate. What is the success rate? Do we reach the success rate? In practical cases where we have implemented this, the customers accept that we cannot reach 100% and it's not necessary to reach 100% because the last 10% is so costly to reach and there would still be mistakes which means it cannot be done.” (A11)
BA has limitations in addressing problems	Forecasting	“We also realized that this is the limit to which we can go in terms of accuracy because there is a data quality issue, but we can try and develop a model, similar model for another forecasting thing that is needed by them. So that way even though they were satisfied in the sense that they knew that there is an inherent problem with the data they have, and there is nothing we can do with it now.” (A10)
BA can adequately solve all relevant problems	Customer acquisition (advertising conversion)	“In manufacturing, we had a lot of issues with the tools because the pipeline was not stable and we could not get the data for some days because it did not load … but now in X [A5’s current company], that side of tooling is already done, and we do not need to worry about that … that is exactly what I need.” (A5)
BA can adequately solve all relevant problems	Equipment monitoring	“We do all the calculations and present the data to the people as actions. We tell them you need to fix this elevator and then the next one is this. It [business analytics] gives you the decisions already made, and this is the most profitable way to take action.” (A4)
BA has more capability than can be used to solve problems	Warehouse optimization	“You need to know what is fit and proper for your business context. If you think about modern tools, they have more features than you will ever use. The tools are not the bottleneck, that I can assure you.” (A6)
BA has more capability than can be used to solve problems	Predictive equipment maintenance	“In business analytics, we just match the technology side with what is being asked. On the technology side, going beyond expectations means that we can do it faster and cheaper. If we can do stuff more cost-efficiently, it means that we can do more stuff than what was expected.” (A4)
Measuring problem resolution efficacy is challenging	Identifying opportunities	“In many cases, the client organization has an idea that they want to do better, and they might even have selected the area where they want to be better but then they don’t have a tangible idea of what being better looks like.” (A8)
Measuring problem resolution efficacy is challenging	Business process improvement	“Some customers have a clearer reason for what kind of data they need and how they want to automate their processes. For other customers, we do a lot of consulting to help them to strengthen their vision and identify their needs.” (A7)
Changes occur in the manner of problem resolution	Logistics optimization	“If you understand the baseline, it's much easier to improve. But many times, those KPIs [key performance indicators] are not defined in the beginning phase, and that of course makes it quite hard to understand the return on investment on these topics [BA’s use to solve problems] if you don't measure the starting point. You usually get results on the things you can measure.” (A12)
Changes occur in the manner of problem resolution	Operational efficiency	“It is not uncommon that the solution that they thought of in the beginning is not the solution that solves the core problem. It is just a patch. If you keep on focusing on those, you will end up having just a very complex and confusing set of tools that are not really helping the user and are most likely not used.” (A8)
Problems may remain unsolved	Simulation of production	“You must always be very clear about what you are solving or what process you are talking about. When you have these analytic tools there is also the risk of having a lot of different kinds of visualizations and metrics that nobody understands. Which of these 50 metrics is the most important? In my mind, analytics is a tool that cannot solve everything.” (A1)
Problems may remain unsolved	Equipment usage optimization	“For miners, it is always about productivity, so we don't need to fix anything that's not broken. If the cost of collecting the data and doing activities intelligently with it is too expensive, then it's more viable not to do anything and do things in the old way.” (A9)

Second-order theme	BA context	Supporting first-order quotation
BA has limitations in addressing problems	Customer engagement	“One of the metrics of course is the success rate. What is the success rate? Do we reach the success rate? In practical cases where we have implemented this, the customers accept that we cannot reach 100% and it's not necessary to reach 100% because the last 10% is so costly to reach and there would still be mistakes which means it cannot be done.” (A11)
BA has limitations in addressing problems	Forecasting	“We also realized that this is the limit to which we can go in terms of accuracy because there is a data quality issue, but we can try and develop a model, similar model for another forecasting thing that is needed by them. So that way even though they were satisfied in the sense that they knew that there is an inherent problem with the data they have, and there is nothing we can do with it now.” (A10)
BA can adequately solve all relevant problems	Customer acquisition (advertising conversion)	“In manufacturing, we had a lot of issues with the tools because the pipeline was not stable and we could not get the data for some days because it did not load … but now in X [A5’s current company], that side of tooling is already done, and we do not need to worry about that … that is exactly what I need.” (A5)
BA can adequately solve all relevant problems	Equipment monitoring	“We do all the calculations and present the data to the people as actions. We tell them you need to fix this elevator and then the next one is this. It [business analytics] gives you the decisions already made, and this is the most profitable way to take action.” (A4)
BA has more capability than can be used to solve problems	Warehouse optimization	“You need to know what is fit and proper for your business context. If you think about modern tools, they have more features than you will ever use. The tools are not the bottleneck, that I can assure you.” (A6)
BA has more capability than can be used to solve problems	Predictive equipment maintenance	“In business analytics, we just match the technology side with what is being asked. On the technology side, going beyond expectations means that we can do it faster and cheaper. If we can do stuff more cost-efficiently, it means that we can do more stuff than what was expected.” (A4)
Measuring problem resolution efficacy is challenging	Identifying opportunities	“In many cases, the client organization has an idea that they want to do better, and they might even have selected the area where they want to be better but then they don’t have a tangible idea of what being better looks like.” (A8)
Measuring problem resolution efficacy is challenging	Business process improvement	“Some customers have a clearer reason for what kind of data they need and how they want to automate their processes. For other customers, we do a lot of consulting to help them to strengthen their vision and identify their needs.” (A7)
Changes occur in the manner of problem resolution	Logistics optimization	“If you understand the baseline, it's much easier to improve. But many times, those KPIs [key performance indicators] are not defined in the beginning phase, and that of course makes it quite hard to understand the return on investment on these topics [BA’s use to solve problems] if you don't measure the starting point. You usually get results on the things you can measure.” (A12)
Changes occur in the manner of problem resolution	Operational efficiency	“It is not uncommon that the solution that they thought of in the beginning is not the solution that solves the core problem. It is just a patch. If you keep on focusing on those, you will end up having just a very complex and confusing set of tools that are not really helping the user and are most likely not used.” (A8)
Problems may remain unsolved	Simulation of production	“You must always be very clear about what you are solving or what process you are talking about. When you have these analytic tools there is also the risk of having a lot of different kinds of visualizations and metrics that nobody understands. Which of these 50 metrics is the most important? In my mind, analytics is a tool that cannot solve everything.” (A1)
Problems may remain unsolved	Equipment usage optimization	“For miners, it is always about productivity, so we don't need to fix anything that's not broken. If the cost of collecting the data and doing activities intelligently with it is too expensive, then it's more viable not to do anything and do things in the old way.” (A9)

Source(s): Authors’ own creation