SlideShare a Scribd company logo
1 of 9
Download to read offline
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE)
e-ISSN: 2278-0661,p-ISSN: 2278-8727, Volume 17, Issue 6, Ver. IV (Nov – Dec. 2015), PP 35-43
www.iosrjournals.org
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 35 | Page
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise
(SME) regional growth
Ogbuokiri, B.O.(MSc.)1
, Udanor C.N. (PhD)2
, Agu, M.N. (PhD)3
1. blessing.ogbuokiri@unn.edu.ng, 2. Collins.udanor@unn.edu.ng 3. Monica.agu@unn.edu.ng
Department of Computer science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state.1,2,3
Abstract: In all economies, especially in developing and transition economies, there is now a consensus among
state policy makers, development economists as well as international development partners that small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) are a potent driving force for their industrial growth and indeed, overall economic
development. In recent times, the concept of Big Data has been seen as a new solution to help in policy and
practice in all sorts of application context and domains. The impact of abundance data collected and stored
over a number of years by various organisations both public and private has led to many innovative data
analytics technologies. The thrust of this paper therefore is focusing on SME growth, that is, how to assist
regional small business growth using Big Data. Harnessing big data practice for SME growth has potential to
challenge current decision making and policy initiatives both at the government level (macro), as well as at the
SME level (micro). Thispaper will assess the extent to which Big Data can be harnessed for SME growth; and
develop a systems based method for making intervention based on Big Data practice for SME growth.
Keywords:SMEs, Big data, Analytic, regional, Economies, growth.
I. Introduction
The increasing focus on big data and its potential to influence almost every sector ofindustry, gives it
the edge to be seen as new solution for enterprises. However, many organizations and often SMEs fail to
successfully implement technological and analytical frameworks in order to harness some of the potential that
big data has. The early uses of gathering a large variety and volume of data has mostly been within large
corporations. Mostly larger enterprises has launched initiatives to complement their analytical proficiencies, but
as technologies mature, and more companies adopt analytics for handling data, and learn how to organize within
this new analytics, SMEs might find an easier time reaping some of the benefits. Also led by cheaper and more
easily accessible servers and data centers, delivered through cloud vendors, SMEs now face less of a constraint
on upfront investment, rather the challenges presents themselves as organizational and strategic of nature. The
right technologies still needs to be chosen, but with well supported and documented open source data systems
being available, it has increasingly become a question of choosing right, and choosing a scalable option that fits
the specific need of an SME.
Big Data is not just for only big businesses with bigger budgets. Today, small business, too, can reap
the benefits of the massive amounts of online and offline information to make wise, data-driven decisions to
grow their businesses. Although most Big Data discussions concern enterprises that have all the resources to
hire data scientists and research firms, there are several ways that small business can gather, analyze and make
sense of data they already have.
The data accessibility and improved analytics revolution are igniting opportunities for new companies
and existing SMEs to find new ways to harness the power of the growing aggregation of digital data. These
immense opportunities generated by capturing and analyzing data are creating new companies every day.The
power of data is not limited to startups but also apply to existing business models across industries. The use of
digital data and analytical tools enables SMEs to extend their products and services as well as to create new ones
(Intuit, 2012).
II. Literature Review
Lawal, et al (2010) opines there is no universal definition of small scale industry. Definition also
changes overtimes, owing to changes in price level, advances in technology and other considerations. Criteria
that may be used in the definition of small scale enterprises(SSEs) often include turnover, gross output and
employment. These factors are usually used because they are functional and easy to measure. According to
Rouse, (2011) SME is a convenient term for segmenting businesses and other organizations that are somewhere
between the "small office-home office" (SOHO) size and the larger enterprise. The European Union has defined
an SME as a legally independent company with no more than 500 employees.
Small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a veryheterogeneous group. SMEs are found in a
wide arrayof business activities, ranging fromthe single artisanproducing agricultural implements forthe village
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 36 | Page
market, the coffee shop at the corner, the internet café in a small town to a small sophisticatedengineering or
softwarefirmselling in overseas marketsand a medium-sized automotive partsmanufacturer selling to
multinational automakers in the domestic and foreign markets. The owners mayormaynot be poor; the firms
operate in verydifferentmarkets(urban, rural,local, national, regional andinternational); embodydifferent levelsof
skills, capital, sophistication and growth orientation, and maybein the formal or the informal
economy(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2004).
Statistical definition of SMEs varies bycountryand is usually based on the numberof employees, and
value of sales and/or value of assets (Ayyagariet al, 2003). Due to its ease of collection, the most commonly
used variable is the number of employees. The EU and alarge number of OECD, transition anddeveloping
countries set the upper limit of number of employees in the SMEs between 200-250, witha few exceptions such
as Japan(300 employees) and the USA (500 employees). At the lowerend of the SME sector, a large number of
countries define a group, which is a mixture of the self-employed and ―micro‖ enterprises, with less than 10
employees. Irrespective of the level of development of an economy,asignificant proportion ofmicro and,
sometimes, small enterprises are found in the informalsector or the shadow economy (OECD, 2002).OECD
(2004) in Schneider (2003)compared the size of theinformal sector in 22 transition (former SovietUnion and
Central and Eastern Europe) and 21 OECDeconomiesfrom 2000-2002 and found that the sizeofthe informal
sector amounted to an average of16.7%, 29.2%and 44.8%of GDP in OECD, Central and Eastern Europe and the
former Soviet Unioneconomies, respectively.
As the United States took the big jump from agriculture dominated society to an industrialsociety,
self-employment statistics also changed dramatically. By 1900, about 80 percent of the work force was self-
employed, while about 20 percent worked for other firms. As the year 2000 approaches, the opposite is
essentially true. 20 percent of workers today are self-employed, while 30 percent work for other firms and
businesses. One might conclude from this that there are fewer small firms in the Country, but that is not true. In
fact, small firms are as popular as ever. The decrease in self-employment came from a decline in the number of
Independent farmers, which was largely offset by an increase in large firm employment.
Osoba (1987) argued that financing strength is the main determinant of small and medium enterprises
growth in developing countries. Similarly, Yue and Ma (2008) studied issues pertinent to the sustainable
development of technological innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). At the end of their study,
they argued that sustainable development of technological innovation in SMEs is a systemic engineering, which
involves a number of issues such as technical level, capabilities of key research and develop personnel,
availability of fund for research and development and business development etc. SMEs need to develop and
implement strategy based on their own characteristics and strive to realize sustainable growth in the long run
which cannot be resolved in a short time. Oluba (2009) summarized the contribution of SMEs to an economy,
especially developing ones as: Greater utilization of raw materials, employment generation, encourage of rural
development, development of entrepreneurship, mobilization of local savings, linkages with bigger industries,
provision of regional balance by spreading investments more evenly, provision of avenue for self-employment
and provision of opportunity for training managers and semi-skilled workers. Ogunsiji and Ladamu (2010)
argued that entrepreneurial orientation is the panacea to the ebbing productivity. Each of these engines of
growth like people, market, capital, technology and organization can only flower and blossom fully where the
efficacy of entrepreneurial orientation is appreciated and implemented. Asta and Zaneta (2010) examined the
growing importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their influence on economic development of
Lithuania‘s demand special attention given to processes, tendencies, perspectives in them and encourage the
search for the effective SME performance improvement measures. They noted that to improve their
environmental performance, economic and social effectiveness, the integrated, based on financial analysis,
decision-making model is needed which would be oriented to strategic sustainability goals, not requiring
significant time, financial and human resources, The integration of sustainability management accounting
(SMA) and composite sustainable development index (ICSD) methodologies makes the basis of sustainable
development decision-making model for SMEs.
Jones, (2014), opined that, regardless of the size of a company, big data is a reference to data sets too
large and complex for companies to manage within their traditional IT systems.But a look past the technical
jargon will reveal that big data is about opportunity.The opportunity to learn from a company's data in order to
make smarter business decisions.While it may come as no surprise that large enterprise companies are taking
advantage of the opportunity that big data affords, some entrepreneurs may not know that small businesses can
do the same.
Owners of a small business ability to succeed in the face of larger competitors is driven personal
intuition and ability to provide a superior service. But big data is changing the business landscape. Chances are
some competitors large and small are using big data to enhance product quality, improve marketing operations
and further customer relationships. This newfound efficiency of larger competitors can be a very real threat to
the sustainability of SME business. A small retailer could analyze the relationship between social-media
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 37 | Page
conversations and buying trends to quickly capitalize on emerging sales opportunities. Or launching a new
online service, ability to analyze a site's visitors and track how they move from page to page so as to understand
what engages them, the things that turn them off and detect promotional and cross-selling opportunities. Some
believe that big-data analytics projects are too costly and complex for a small business to take on. Indeed most
of the analytics solutions on the market were built specifically for larger enterprises, making them costly and
complex to implement. This is meaningless to the owners of small businesses who are focused on simply
finding the right tool for the right users quickly so as to accomplish more work done faster.Fortunately, with big
data now on the minds of everyone, new solutions are coming to the market each day and some have been
created for the specific needs of smaller businesses (Jones, 2014).
III. Characteristics of Bigdata solution in SME
Here are three characteristics small businesses should seek in a big-data solution:
1.1. Flexibility and choice
Big-data solutions targeted at large enterprises are typically an all-or-nothing proposition, requiring
customers to gut existing systems, thereby imposing a heavy cost and time burden on information-technology
departments. This simply doesn‘t work for small businesses.
When the marketing department of a small company needs a marketing-automation system, it typically
acts independently of the IT department, laying out its requirements, cost justifications and system requirements
and then researching and choosing the best solution to meet its needs.
As a result, small businesses regularly deploy a variety of solutions throughout the organization,
including desktop software for business tasks, a software as a service solution like those of Salesforce or
Workday for marketing or HR, a public or private cloud for development and perhaps some custom-built
solutions to meet specific needs. This leads to an environment with many different types of data.
A big-data solution for small businesses must allow them to choose only the capabilities they need and
leverage the solutions and systems already in place.
The solution should be complete in having everything a customer might need in one pre-integrated
package, but the vendor shouldn‘t force a company to replace a capability it already has implemented and
adopted.
1.2. Simplicity
A big-data solution for small businesses should be easy to deploy and use and take only a few days or
weeks for a company to start using it not months or years. All the capabilities of the system should work
together seamlessly. And if the customer is integrating new capabilities with existing systems, it should be
possible to accomplish this without the need for expensive specialists.
In addition, the system should not require staffers to undergo a lot of training and should include self-
service capabilities so a broader audience of analysts and business users can use it without the need for the IT
department to become involved.
1.3. Cost
Finally, a big-data solution for small businesses must be priced right. Customers should be able to pay
for only the capabilities they need, and the licensing strategy should allow them to start small and scale up as the
need for analytics increases. This approach is particularly useful for a rapidly growing small business, where it‘s
critical for the cost and capabilities of software investments to align with the rate of growth and expansion of the
operation.
The transition from an intuition-driven company to an analytics-driven company is one small-business
owners can embrace. Finding the right IT solution, one geared to the specific needs of the small business, can
help make it practical and affordable to benefit from the opportunity big data affords.
IV. Bigdata analytics for SME growth
In this paper we selected five Big Data solutions for Small and medium Enterprise regional growth, we
provided an insight on how they can help grow SMEs.
1.4. IBM's Watson Analytics
While many Big Data solutions are built for extremely knowledgeable data scientists and analysts,
IBM's Watson Analytics makes advanced and predictive business analytics easily accessible to small businesses.
The platform doesn't require any requisite skills of using complex data mining and analysis systems, but
automates the process instead. This self-service analytics solution includes a suite of data access, data
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 38 | Page
refinement and data warehousing services, giving you all the tools you need to prepare and present data yourself
in a simple and actionable way to guide decision-making.
Unlike other analytics solutions that focus on one area of business, Watson Analytics unifies all your
data analysis projects into a single platform — it can be used for all types of data analysis, from marketing to
sales, finance, human resources and other parts of your operations. Its "natural language" technology helps
businesses identify problems, recognize patterns and gain meaningful insights to answer key questions like what
ultimately drive sales, which deals are likely to close, how to make employees happy and more.
Watson Analytics takes the complex math and coding of analytics and does it for you. Smart data
discovery gives you predictive modeling, data preparation, dashboards and visualizations, all in a few clicks. It
can be a spreadsheet on your computer, relational data in a database, report data or data you‘ve stored in a cloud
storage service. Below are three major activities in IBM Watson Analytics.
Figure 1: Three activities of IBM Watson Analytics
Source (ibm.biz/watsonexplorer.)
1.4.1. Search
Watson Explorer‘s search combines content and data from many different systems throughout the
enterprise, and presents it to users in a single view; dramatically reducing the amount of time spent looking for
information and increasing their ability to work smarter. Watson Explorer‘s 360-degree information applications
deliver data, analytics and cognitive insights relevant to the user‘s role, context and current activities.
1.4.2. Analyze
While structured analytics can provide insighton the what, where and when of a businesschallenge or
opportunity, content analyticsprovides insights to answer why and how. Watson Explorer‘s content analytics
allow enterprises to extract meaning and insight from natural language content such as customer comments and
research reports, and to use those insights to streamline business operations, uncover risk, gain a better
understanding of customers and make better decisions.
1.4.3. Interpret
The IBM Watson Developer Cloud provides a portfolio of content and services through application
programminginterfaces (APIs) to help create a new generation of cognitive applications to enhance, scale and
augment human expertise. The services make direct participation in the era of cognitive systems available to
everyone who shares the goal of a new partnership between people and computers. Watson Explorer provides
the ability to integrate a growing list of these services for an enhanced experience by leveraging the combined
strengthof search, analytic and cognitive capabilities.
1.5. Google Analytics
SME owners done need expensive software to begin gathering data. It can start from an asset you
already have, your website. Google Analytics, Google's free Web-traffic-monitoring tool, provides all types of
data about website visitors, using a multitude of metrics and traffic sources.
With Google Analytics, you can extract long-term data to reveal trends and other valuable information,
so you can make wise, data-driven decisions. For instance, by tracking and analyzing visitor behavior such as
where traffic is coming from, how audiences engage and how long visitors stay on a website (known as bounce
rates). You can make better decisions when striving to meet your website's or online store's goals. Another
example is analyzing social media traffic, which will allow you to make changes to your social media marketing
campaigns based on what is and is not working. Studying mobile visitors can also help you extract information
about customers browsing your site using their mobile devices, so you can provide a better mobile experience.
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 39 | Page
1.5.1. Architecture of Google Analytics
T he diagram in figure 2 show an architecture of Google Analytics and how it works
Figure 2: Architecture of Google Analytics
Source (http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-architecture-of-Google-Analytics)
When any visitor accesses any section of your website, a request is made to the webserver to display
the page. The webserver process the request and sends back the response to the browser. When the visitor's
browser loads the page, it executes the javascript GA tracking code present in that webpage. Google Analytics
will extract user cookie values. It updates and creates the cookies as necessary and sends the request to Google
Analytics server where the data is processed. After the processing all the data then forms the part of the Google
Analytics Report. This data is finally available for user‘s view in the user‘s Dashboard.
1.6. InsightSquared
InsightSquared connects to business solutions such as Salesforce, QuickBooks, ShoreTel Sky, Google
Analytics, Zendesk and more to automatically gather data and extract actionable information. For instance,
using data from customer relationship management (CRM) software, InsightSquared can provide a wealth of
small business sales intelligence, such as pipeline forecasting, lead generation and tracking, profitability
analysis, and activity monitoring. It can also help businesses discover trends, strengths and weaknesses, sales
team wins and losses, and more. In addition to sales tools, InsightSquared's suite of products also includes
marketing, financial, staffing and support analytics tools.
1.7. Canopy Labs
Big Data will not just help a SME owner make better business decisions; it can help you predict the
future, too. Canopy Labs, a customer analytics platform, uses customer behavior, sales trends and predictive
behavioral models to extract valuable information for future marketing campaigns and to help you discover the
most opportune product recommendations.
One of Canopy Labs' standout features is the 360-degree Customer View, which shows comprehensive
data about each individual customer. Its purpose is two-fold: first, it reveals each customer‘s standing, such as
lifetime value, loyalty and engagement level, as well as purchase histories, email behaviors and other metrics
and this shows which customers are profitable and worth reaching out to. Second, with this information,
businesses can better create personalized offers, track customer responses and launch improved outreach
campaigns. Canopy Labs handles the complex, technical side of Big Data, so all you have to focus on are your
customers.
1.8. Tranzlogic
This is no secret that credit card transactions are chock full of invaluable data. Although access was
once limited to companies with significant resources, customer intelligence company Tranzlogic makes this
information available to small businesses without the big business budget.
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 40 | Page
Tranzlogic works with merchants and payment systems to extract and analyze proprietary data from
credit card purchases. This information can then be used to measure sales performance, evaluate customers and
customer segments, improve promotions and loyalty programs, launch more-effective marketing campaigns,
write better business plans, and perform other tasks that lead to smarter business decisions. Moreover,
Tranzlogic requires no technical skill to get started. it is a turnkey program, meaning there is no installation or
programming required. Simply log in to access your merchant portal.
1.9. Qualtrics
SME owners that donot currently have any rich sources for data, conducting research may be the
answer.Qualtrics lets businesses conduct a wide range of studies and surveys to gain quality insights to guide
data-driven decision making.
Qualtrics offers three types of real-time insights: customer, market and employee insights. To gain
customer insight, use Qualtrics' survey software for customer satisfaction, customer experience and website
feedback surveys. To study the market, Qualtrics also offers advertising testing, concept testing and market
research programs. And when it comes to a team, Qualtrics can help conduct employee surveys, exit interviews
and reviews. Other options include online samples, academic research and mobile surveys.
V. Discussions
SME can be in any of this forms micro/cottage industry, small scale industry, medium scale industry or
large scale industry.
Micro/Cottage Industry
This is an industry with total capital employed of not more than 15 million working capital but
excluding cost of land and or a labour size of not more than 10 workers.
Small – Scale Industry
An industry with total Capital employed of over 1.5 million but not more than 50 million, including
working capital but excluding cost of land, and or labour size of 11 – 100 workers.
Medium – Scale Industry
An industry with a total capital employed of over 50 million but not more than 200 million, including
working capital but excluding cost of land, and or a labour size of 101 – 300 workers.
Large – Scale Industry
An industry with a total capital employed of over 200 million, including working capital but excluding
cost of land or a labour size of over 300 workers. Comparatively, most advanced countries seemed to have
agreed on a maximum limit of 500 employees as a small Firm.
1.10. Problems of Small and Medium Enterprises
Baadom (2004) asserted that the following problems militate against the effective operation of small
and medium enterprises;
Poor Implementation of Policies: there have been many good policies formulated in the past by
the government in developing countries to improve SMEs, but weak implementation has made it impossible to
realize the goal.
Lack of Continuity: most small scale establishments are sole proprietorship and such establishment often
ceases to function as soon as the owner loses interest or dies. This raises the risk of financing such business.
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 41 | Page
Poor Capital Outlay: inadequate capital outlay has often affected small scale business adversely. Financiers
often regard the sector has high risk area and therefore feel skeptical about committing their fund to it.
Poor Management Expertise: Management has always been a problem in this sector as most small scale
businesses do not have the required management expertise to carry them through once the business start
growing. The situation gets compounded as training is not usually accorded priority in such establishments.
Inadequate Information Base: Small scale business enterprises are usually characterized by poor record
keeping and that usually starve of necessary information required for planning and management purposes. This
usually affects the realization of the sector.
Lack of Raw Materials: In some small scale business enterprises, raw materials are sourced externally, hence
the fate of such enterprises to foreign exchange behavior. The fluctuation of foreign exchange may therefore
make it difficult to plan and that may precipitate same stock that may destabilize the setup.
Poor Accounting System: the accounting system of most small scale business enterprises lack standard and
does not make room for the assessment of their performances. That creates opportunity for mismanagement,
which consequently may lead to enterprise failure.
Unstable Policy Environment: Government policy instability has not been helpful to small scale businesses.
That has been destabilizing and has indeed sent many SMEs to early fold-ups.
1.11. Life Cycle of Small and Medium Enterprises
In general, the ideal life cycle of small and medium enterprises as posited by Udhe (1999) can be
divided into four phases viz: start up, accelerated growth, stable growth and maturity.
Start-up:usually lasts for a period of one or three years during which the founder supervises the whole business
activities that may be carried out by family members, friends or small number of employees.
The Phase of Accelerated Growth:usually lasts three to four years. During this period, the founder or a
management expert handles management. At this point, a corporate organization is developed thereby leading to
separation of ownership from management.
The Stable Growth phase typically has duration of two to five years. During this period, management expertise
and the corporate organization are divided into numerous departments and inflow of stable, long-term venture
capital from corporate investors begins to appear.
Finally, the Phase of Maturity that may start after several years of beginning in the business adopts the same
type of management as stable growth phase but major difference being that sources of funding may become
more diverse.
1.12. Strategic Importance of SMEs
In spite of the foregoing strategic advantages of SMEs, some analysts have argued that many assumed
strategic benefits of small firms may be ‗myth‘ rather than ‗reality‘. The following provides critical review of
these arguments and their empirical evidence.
Employment: In most developing countries, micro enterprises and small-scale enterprisesaccount for the
majority of firms and a large share of the employment. The relative importance of small business varies
significantly across countries and within a given country, across stages of development over time. A
comparative study of manufacturing firms by Snadgross and Briggs
(1996) shows common pattern in the transformation of the size distribution of firms as industrialization by
concluding that small-scale enterprises play a declining role as countriesdevelop.
Labour Intensity: Small firm employ a large share of the labour force in many developing countries.
Theoretically, SMEs are regarded to be more labour intensive than large firms. However, some research
evidence suggests that many SMEs are in fact more capital intensive (Little, Mazxumbar and Page, 1987).
Labour intensity exhibits more variation across industries than among firm-sized groups within industries
(Snodgrass and Biggs, 1996).
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 42 | Page
Job Creation: It is often argued that SMEs are important for employment growth. This conviction has not been
supported by empirical evidence, while job creation rates are substantially higher for small firms, so are gross
destruction rates, SMEs exhibit high birth rates and high death rates and many small firms fail to grow (Davis, et
al 1993).
Efficiency: Most studies of developing countries show that the smallest firms are least efficient and there is
some evidence that both small and large firms are relatively inefficient compared to medium-scale firms (Little,
Mazumdar and Page, 1987). It is often argued that SMEs are more innovative than larger firms probably due to
the adoption of ‗niche strategies‘, such as high product quality, flexibility and responsibility to customerneeds as
means of competing with large-scale businesses (Snodgrass and Biggs 1996). However,ACS, Morck and Young
(1999) found that these innovations often take time, and large firmsmay have more resources to adopt and
implement them.
Wages and Benefits: Although, research evidence suggests that larger employers offer better jobs in terms of
working conditions than SMEs. (David, et al 1993). There is some evidence that this disparity narrows as
industrialization proceeds (Snodgrass and Biggs, 1996).
Social, Political and Equity Justifications: SMEs are often said to contribute to a more equal distribution of
income or wealth. However, SMEs owners and workers are likely to be the poorest of the poor, so that SME
promotion may not be the most effective poverty alleviation instrument. In reality, the desire of governments to
promote SMEs is often based on social and political considerations rather than economic grounds.
VI. Conclusions
Big data has now become a popular term used to describe the exponential growth and availability of
data both structured and unstructured. In recent times, big data is seen to be as important to business and society
as the internet has become. More data may lead to more accurate analyses. More accurate analyses may lead to
more confident decision making. And better decisions can mean greater operational efficiencies, cost reduction
and reduced risks to SMEs. Therefore, in this paper, we buttressed the extent to which small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from using big data and implementing same to SMEs analytical practice. We
highlighted the importance of bigdata to SMEs. We analysed some bigdata analytics that can enhance SME
regional growth. We also considered the potential usefulness of big data to SMEs.
SMEs should seethe fundamental potential of Big Data for better decision making and policy creation
in markets and business models, and begin to explore the opportunities. Big Data Value represents an extremely
strategic and profitable opportunity for SMEs. In order to succeed very well in the world where its regions is
driven by innovation and competitiveness, it is necessary to foster the development and wide-scale adoption of
Big Data Value technologies, successful use cases and data-driven business models.
Reference
[1]. Margaret Rouse (2011) small to medium enterprise (SME), Business intelligence - business analytics retrieved from
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/small-to-medium-enterprise-SME Accessed Wednesday, June 17, 2015 by 2:57pm GMT+1
[2]. Southard jones (2014) Retrieved fromhttp://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235338
[3]. Sonia Buchholtz, MaciejBukowski, AleksanderŚniegocki(2014), Big and open data in Europe -A growth engine or a missed
opportunity?‖,Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies, report commissioned by demosEUROPA, 2014
[4]. Gabriella Catteneo (2014), The European Data Market, IDC presentation given at the NESSI summit in Brussels on 27 May 2014,
available online at: http://www.nessi-europe.eu/?Page=nessi_summit_2014
[5]. Andrew SsegawaKiggundu (2013), How can Big Data benefit SME‘s in developing African Countries?, MSc. Thesis, Univesity of
Botswana.
[6]. Safiriyu, AdijatMorenikejiandNjogo, BibianaOluchukwu (2012), Impact of small and medium scale enterprises in theGeneration of
employment in Lagos state, Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review Vol. 1, No.11; July 2012.
[7]. Snodgrass. D. R & T Briggs (1996), Industrialization and small Firm Patterns and Policies, A co-publication of the international
Center for Economic growth and Harvard Institute for International Development. San Francisco, California.
[8]. Little, M.D.; Mazumdar, D. and Page, J. M. (1987). ―Small Manufacturing Enterprises: A comparative study of India and other
Economies, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
[9]. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) (2004).OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. Available
OECD Publications Service, Paris Cedex 16, France
[10]. Ayyagari, Meghana and Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli and Beck, Thorsten (2003), Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe: A New
Database. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3127. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=636547.
[11]. Lawal, A. A.And Bello, M.A. (2010) Business Policy and Strategic Management. Lagos. Suhanif Nigerian Enterprises.
[12]. Schneider, Friedrich (2003): The shadow economy, in: Charles K. Rowley and Friedrich Schneider (eds.), Encyclopedia of Public
Choice, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
[13]. Osoba, A. M. (1987). Small-Scale Enterprises in the Development Process, In Osoba, A.M. (Eds.).Towards the Development of
Small-Scale Industries in Nigeria, NISER, Ibadan. PP. 8-24.
[14]. Asta, L. &Zaneta, S. (2010). Sustainable development decision-making model for small and medium enterprises.Environmental
Research, Engineering and Management. 2(52), 14-24
Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth
DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 43 | Page
[15]. Ogunsiji, S. O. and Ladanu, W. K. (2010). Entrepreneurial orientation as a panacea for the ebbing productivity in Nigerian small
and medium enterprises: A theoretical perspective. International Business Research, 3 (4), 192-199.
[16]. Oluba N. Martin (2009), Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and Economic Growth, Pakistan Journal of Business and Economic
Review Vol. l. 2, Number 1 (2009).
[17]. Baadom, S. B.(2004). Fundamentals of Business Management in Nigeria.Port-Harcourt: AnoPublishers.
[18]. Yue, F. & Ma, L. (2008).Research on the sustainable development of technological innovation in small and medium enterprises.Pp
1051-1054

More Related Content

What's hot

The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...
The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...
The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...Premier Publishers
 
A470113.pdf
A470113.pdfA470113.pdf
A470113.pdfaijbm
 
PEST ANALYSIS OF TESCO
PEST ANALYSIS OF TESCOPEST ANALYSIS OF TESCO
PEST ANALYSIS OF TESCOSwapnil Mali
 
2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr
2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr
2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lrJessie Leisten
 
it & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Data
it & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Datait & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Data
it & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical DataWaqas Tariq
 
CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...
CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...
CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...IJMIT JOURNAL
 
Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)
Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)
Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)Mohd Hasim Ujang
 
Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T...
 Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T... Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T...
Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T...IJMIT JOURNAL
 
Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...
Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...
Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...AkashSharma618775
 
Small and Medium Enterprises
Small and Medium EnterprisesSmall and Medium Enterprises
Small and Medium EnterprisesDr Lendy Spires
 
How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?
How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?
How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?Slawomir Starzec
 
Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...
Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...
Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...IJMIT JOURNAL
 
Financial development and economic growth in nigeria
Financial development and economic growth in nigeriaFinancial development and economic growth in nigeria
Financial development and economic growth in nigeriaAlexander Decker
 
Corporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firms
Corporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firmsCorporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firms
Corporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firmsYing wei (Joe) Chou
 

What's hot (17)

The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...
The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...
The ASSESSMENT of TAXATION on PERFORMANCE of MICRO and SMALL ENTERPRISE in th...
 
A470113.pdf
A470113.pdfA470113.pdf
A470113.pdf
 
PEST ANALYSIS OF TESCO
PEST ANALYSIS OF TESCOPEST ANALYSIS OF TESCO
PEST ANALYSIS OF TESCO
 
2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr
2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr
2014_Trends_Global_Engagement_v11_lr
 
Challenges and Opportunities of Growth of Micro and Small Enterprises in Asel...
Challenges and Opportunities of Growth of Micro and Small Enterprises in Asel...Challenges and Opportunities of Growth of Micro and Small Enterprises in Asel...
Challenges and Opportunities of Growth of Micro and Small Enterprises in Asel...
 
it & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Data
it & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Datait & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Data
it & Economic Performance a Critical Review of the Empirical Data
 
CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...
CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...
CO-EVOLUTIONARY COUPLING BETWEEN CAPTURED AND UNCAPTURED GDP CYCLES:CROSS LEA...
 
Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)
Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)
Privatization and Public Private Partnership (PPP)
 
10120140507002 2
10120140507002 210120140507002 2
10120140507002 2
 
Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T...
 Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T... Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T...
Top Cited Articles in 2018 - International Journal of Managing Information T...
 
Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...
Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...
Effect of market penetration management strategies on performance of Small En...
 
Small and Medium Enterprises
Small and Medium EnterprisesSmall and Medium Enterprises
Small and Medium Enterprises
 
How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?
How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?
How Tesco used the PESTLE analysis to launch its business in South Korea?
 
ACP Literature Review
ACP Literature ReviewACP Literature Review
ACP Literature Review
 
Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...
Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...
Top Cited Articles in 2019 - International Journal of Managing Information Te...
 
Financial development and economic growth in nigeria
Financial development and economic growth in nigeriaFinancial development and economic growth in nigeria
Financial development and economic growth in nigeria
 
Corporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firms
Corporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firmsCorporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firms
Corporate entrepreneurship of emerging market firms
 

Viewers also liked

Conoscere l'editoria 2
Conoscere l'editoria 2Conoscere l'editoria 2
Conoscere l'editoria 2Cosi Repossi
 
PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ]
PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ] PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ]
PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ] legalservice
 
UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981
UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981
UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981legalservice
 
On α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular Matrices
On α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular MatricesOn α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular Matrices
On α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular MatricesIOSR Journals
 
Lace cocktail dresses gudeer.com
Lace cocktail dresses   gudeer.comLace cocktail dresses   gudeer.com
Lace cocktail dresses gudeer.comGudeer Kitty
 
Operations Semester Objectives
Operations Semester ObjectivesOperations Semester Objectives
Operations Semester ObjectivesMichael Warr
 
Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...
Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...
Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...IOSR Journals
 

Viewers also liked (20)

Conoscere l'editoria 2
Conoscere l'editoria 2Conoscere l'editoria 2
Conoscere l'editoria 2
 
N0173696106
N0173696106N0173696106
N0173696106
 
L0737276
L0737276L0737276
L0737276
 
PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ]
PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ] PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ]
PENDIRIAN PT [ PERSEROAN TERBATAS ]
 
Appendix A
Appendix AAppendix A
Appendix A
 
UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981
UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981
UU.NO. 7 TAHUN 1981
 
IUJP
IUJPIUJP
IUJP
 
On α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular Matrices
On α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular MatricesOn α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular Matrices
On α-characteristic Equations and α-minimal Polynomial of Rectangular Matrices
 
Lace cocktail dresses gudeer.com
Lace cocktail dresses   gudeer.comLace cocktail dresses   gudeer.com
Lace cocktail dresses gudeer.com
 
Operations Semester Objectives
Operations Semester ObjectivesOperations Semester Objectives
Operations Semester Objectives
 
I1303025763
I1303025763I1303025763
I1303025763
 
D013132836
D013132836D013132836
D013132836
 
Q13030194113
Q13030194113Q13030194113
Q13030194113
 
M017657678
M017657678M017657678
M017657678
 
F010424451
F010424451F010424451
F010424451
 
L010338894
L010338894L010338894
L010338894
 
A017410108
A017410108A017410108
A017410108
 
D018121824
D018121824D018121824
D018121824
 
Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...
Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...
Derivation and Application of Six-Point Linear Multistep Numerical Method for...
 
ET INTAN KASAR
ET INTAN KASARET INTAN KASAR
ET INTAN KASAR
 

Similar to F017643543

Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...
Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...
Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...Dr. Amarjeet Singh
 
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)inventionjournals
 
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...ijmpict
 
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...ijmpict
 
Using data analytics to drive BI A case study
Using data analytics to drive BI A case studyUsing data analytics to drive BI A case study
Using data analytics to drive BI A case studyPhoenixraj
 
the influence of machine language and data science in the emerging world
the influence of machine language and data science in the emerging worldthe influence of machine language and data science in the emerging world
the influence of machine language and data science in the emerging worldijtsrd
 
Course 4 entrepreneurship and the economy
Course 4  entrepreneurship and the economy Course 4  entrepreneurship and the economy
Course 4 entrepreneurship and the economy cristianawijayaa
 
MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities
MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities  MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities
MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities Resurgent India
 
Information and communication adoption in smes
Information and communication adoption in smesInformation and communication adoption in smes
Information and communication adoption in smesfahmi221282
 
Information Technology Investment in Sustainability and Profitability
Information Technology Investment in Sustainability and ProfitabilityInformation Technology Investment in Sustainability and Profitability
Information Technology Investment in Sustainability and ProfitabilityYasser Al Mimar
 
Lecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the Economy
Lecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the EconomyLecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the Economy
Lecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the EconomyStefanieWijaya
 
Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity.
Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity. Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity.
Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity. DLD
 
Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...
Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...
Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...Mathi Vanan
 
Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...
Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...
Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...Julius Trujillo
 
Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02
Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02
Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02Wipro Infotech
 
Internet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide Statistics
Internet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide StatisticsInternet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide Statistics
Internet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide StatisticsVaibhav Agarwal
 
Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...
Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...
Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...IJSB
 

Similar to F017643543 (20)

Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...
Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...
Can ICT Reduce Poverty and Unemployment and Elevate Development Integrating M...
 
Brochure_observatory
Brochure_observatoryBrochure_observatory
Brochure_observatory
 
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)
 
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
 
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN THE SURVIVAL OF SMA...
 
Using data analytics to drive BI A case study
Using data analytics to drive BI A case studyUsing data analytics to drive BI A case study
Using data analytics to drive BI A case study
 
the influence of machine language and data science in the emerging world
the influence of machine language and data science in the emerging worldthe influence of machine language and data science in the emerging world
the influence of machine language and data science in the emerging world
 
Course 4 entrepreneurship and the economy
Course 4  entrepreneurship and the economy Course 4  entrepreneurship and the economy
Course 4 entrepreneurship and the economy
 
MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities
MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities  MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities
MSME Sector - Growth, Challenges & Opportunities
 
4.masud al noor 48 59
4.masud al noor 48 594.masud al noor 48 59
4.masud al noor 48 59
 
Information and communication adoption in smes
Information and communication adoption in smesInformation and communication adoption in smes
Information and communication adoption in smes
 
Information Technology Investment in Sustainability and Profitability
Information Technology Investment in Sustainability and ProfitabilityInformation Technology Investment in Sustainability and Profitability
Information Technology Investment in Sustainability and Profitability
 
Untapped opportunity
Untapped opportunityUntapped opportunity
Untapped opportunity
 
Lecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the Economy
Lecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the EconomyLecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the Economy
Lecture 4 - Entrepreneurship and the Economy
 
Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity.
Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity. Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity.
Internet matters: The Nets sweeping impact on growth, jobs, and prosperity.
 
Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...
Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...
Mckinseyglobalinstitueinternetmattersthenetssweepingimpactongrowthjobsandpros...
 
Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...
Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...
Internet matters: The Net’s sweeping impact on growth,jobs, and prosperity ( ...
 
Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02
Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02
Mckinseyandcompany internetmatters-110524210549-phpapp02
 
Internet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide Statistics
Internet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide StatisticsInternet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide Statistics
Internet Impact on Global GDP - Worldwide Statistics
 
Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...
Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...
Obstacles and implementation of accounting software system in Small Medium En...
 

More from IOSR Journals (20)

A011140104
A011140104A011140104
A011140104
 
M0111397100
M0111397100M0111397100
M0111397100
 
L011138596
L011138596L011138596
L011138596
 
K011138084
K011138084K011138084
K011138084
 
J011137479
J011137479J011137479
J011137479
 
I011136673
I011136673I011136673
I011136673
 
G011134454
G011134454G011134454
G011134454
 
H011135565
H011135565H011135565
H011135565
 
F011134043
F011134043F011134043
F011134043
 
E011133639
E011133639E011133639
E011133639
 
D011132635
D011132635D011132635
D011132635
 
C011131925
C011131925C011131925
C011131925
 
B011130918
B011130918B011130918
B011130918
 
A011130108
A011130108A011130108
A011130108
 
I011125160
I011125160I011125160
I011125160
 
H011124050
H011124050H011124050
H011124050
 
G011123539
G011123539G011123539
G011123539
 
F011123134
F011123134F011123134
F011123134
 
E011122530
E011122530E011122530
E011122530
 
D011121524
D011121524D011121524
D011121524
 

Recently uploaded

Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?
Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?
Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?Mattias Andersson
 
Artificial intelligence in the post-deep learning era
Artificial intelligence in the post-deep learning eraArtificial intelligence in the post-deep learning era
Artificial intelligence in the post-deep learning eraDeakin University
 
"LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks...
"LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks..."LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks...
"LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks...Fwdays
 
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024BookNet Canada
 
Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365
Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365
Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 3652toLead Limited
 
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project SetupStreamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project SetupFlorian Wilhelm
 
SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024
SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024
SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024Lorenzo Miniero
 
AI as an Interface for Commercial Buildings
AI as an Interface for Commercial BuildingsAI as an Interface for Commercial Buildings
AI as an Interface for Commercial BuildingsMemoori
 
SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024
SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024
SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024Scott Keck-Warren
 
Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...
Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...
Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...Patryk Bandurski
 
Connect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck Presentation
Connect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck PresentationConnect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck Presentation
Connect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck PresentationSlibray Presentation
 
"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko
"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko
"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii SoldatenkoFwdays
 
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry Innovation
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry InnovationBeyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry Innovation
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry InnovationSafe Software
 
Bluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdf
Bluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdfBluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdf
Bluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdfngoud9212
 
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR Systems
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR SystemsHuman Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR Systems
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR SystemsMark Billinghurst
 
Gen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdf
Gen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdfGen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdf
Gen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdfAddepto
 
Benefits Of Flutter Compared To Other Frameworks
Benefits Of Flutter Compared To Other FrameworksBenefits Of Flutter Compared To Other Frameworks
Benefits Of Flutter Compared To Other FrameworksSoftradix Technologies
 
My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024
My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024
My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024The Digital Insurer
 

Recently uploaded (20)

Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?
Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?
Are Multi-Cloud and Serverless Good or Bad?
 
Artificial intelligence in the post-deep learning era
Artificial intelligence in the post-deep learning eraArtificial intelligence in the post-deep learning era
Artificial intelligence in the post-deep learning era
 
"LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks...
"LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks..."LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks...
"LLMs for Python Engineers: Advanced Data Analysis and Semantic Kernel",Oleks...
 
E-Vehicle_Hacking_by_Parul Sharma_null_owasp.pptx
E-Vehicle_Hacking_by_Parul Sharma_null_owasp.pptxE-Vehicle_Hacking_by_Parul Sharma_null_owasp.pptx
E-Vehicle_Hacking_by_Parul Sharma_null_owasp.pptx
 
Vulnerability_Management_GRC_by Sohang Sengupta.pptx
Vulnerability_Management_GRC_by Sohang Sengupta.pptxVulnerability_Management_GRC_by Sohang Sengupta.pptx
Vulnerability_Management_GRC_by Sohang Sengupta.pptx
 
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2024: BNC BiblioShare - Tech Forum 2024
 
Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365
Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365
Tech-Forward - Achieving Business Readiness For Copilot in Microsoft 365
 
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project SetupStreamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
Streamlining Python Development: A Guide to a Modern Project Setup
 
SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024
SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024
SIP trunking in Janus @ Kamailio World 2024
 
AI as an Interface for Commercial Buildings
AI as an Interface for Commercial BuildingsAI as an Interface for Commercial Buildings
AI as an Interface for Commercial Buildings
 
SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024
SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024
SQL Database Design For Developers at php[tek] 2024
 
Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...
Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...
Integration and Automation in Practice: CI/CD in Mule Integration and Automat...
 
Connect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck Presentation
Connect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck PresentationConnect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck Presentation
Connect Wave/ connectwave Pitch Deck Presentation
 
"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko
"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko
"Debugging python applications inside k8s environment", Andrii Soldatenko
 
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry Innovation
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry InnovationBeyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry Innovation
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry Innovation
 
Bluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdf
Bluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdfBluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdf
Bluetooth Controlled Car with Arduino.pdf
 
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR Systems
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR SystemsHuman Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR Systems
Human Factors of XR: Using Human Factors to Design XR Systems
 
Gen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdf
Gen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdfGen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdf
Gen AI in Business - Global Trends Report 2024.pdf
 
Benefits Of Flutter Compared To Other Frameworks
Benefits Of Flutter Compared To Other FrameworksBenefits Of Flutter Compared To Other Frameworks
Benefits Of Flutter Compared To Other Frameworks
 
My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024
My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024
My INSURER PTE LTD - Insurtech Innovation Award 2024
 

F017643543

  • 1. IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) e-ISSN: 2278-0661,p-ISSN: 2278-8727, Volume 17, Issue 6, Ver. IV (Nov – Dec. 2015), PP 35-43 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 35 | Page Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth Ogbuokiri, B.O.(MSc.)1 , Udanor C.N. (PhD)2 , Agu, M.N. (PhD)3 1. blessing.ogbuokiri@unn.edu.ng, 2. Collins.udanor@unn.edu.ng 3. Monica.agu@unn.edu.ng Department of Computer science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu state.1,2,3 Abstract: In all economies, especially in developing and transition economies, there is now a consensus among state policy makers, development economists as well as international development partners that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are a potent driving force for their industrial growth and indeed, overall economic development. In recent times, the concept of Big Data has been seen as a new solution to help in policy and practice in all sorts of application context and domains. The impact of abundance data collected and stored over a number of years by various organisations both public and private has led to many innovative data analytics technologies. The thrust of this paper therefore is focusing on SME growth, that is, how to assist regional small business growth using Big Data. Harnessing big data practice for SME growth has potential to challenge current decision making and policy initiatives both at the government level (macro), as well as at the SME level (micro). Thispaper will assess the extent to which Big Data can be harnessed for SME growth; and develop a systems based method for making intervention based on Big Data practice for SME growth. Keywords:SMEs, Big data, Analytic, regional, Economies, growth. I. Introduction The increasing focus on big data and its potential to influence almost every sector ofindustry, gives it the edge to be seen as new solution for enterprises. However, many organizations and often SMEs fail to successfully implement technological and analytical frameworks in order to harness some of the potential that big data has. The early uses of gathering a large variety and volume of data has mostly been within large corporations. Mostly larger enterprises has launched initiatives to complement their analytical proficiencies, but as technologies mature, and more companies adopt analytics for handling data, and learn how to organize within this new analytics, SMEs might find an easier time reaping some of the benefits. Also led by cheaper and more easily accessible servers and data centers, delivered through cloud vendors, SMEs now face less of a constraint on upfront investment, rather the challenges presents themselves as organizational and strategic of nature. The right technologies still needs to be chosen, but with well supported and documented open source data systems being available, it has increasingly become a question of choosing right, and choosing a scalable option that fits the specific need of an SME. Big Data is not just for only big businesses with bigger budgets. Today, small business, too, can reap the benefits of the massive amounts of online and offline information to make wise, data-driven decisions to grow their businesses. Although most Big Data discussions concern enterprises that have all the resources to hire data scientists and research firms, there are several ways that small business can gather, analyze and make sense of data they already have. The data accessibility and improved analytics revolution are igniting opportunities for new companies and existing SMEs to find new ways to harness the power of the growing aggregation of digital data. These immense opportunities generated by capturing and analyzing data are creating new companies every day.The power of data is not limited to startups but also apply to existing business models across industries. The use of digital data and analytical tools enables SMEs to extend their products and services as well as to create new ones (Intuit, 2012). II. Literature Review Lawal, et al (2010) opines there is no universal definition of small scale industry. Definition also changes overtimes, owing to changes in price level, advances in technology and other considerations. Criteria that may be used in the definition of small scale enterprises(SSEs) often include turnover, gross output and employment. These factors are usually used because they are functional and easy to measure. According to Rouse, (2011) SME is a convenient term for segmenting businesses and other organizations that are somewhere between the "small office-home office" (SOHO) size and the larger enterprise. The European Union has defined an SME as a legally independent company with no more than 500 employees. Small andmedium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a veryheterogeneous group. SMEs are found in a wide arrayof business activities, ranging fromthe single artisanproducing agricultural implements forthe village
  • 2. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 36 | Page market, the coffee shop at the corner, the internet café in a small town to a small sophisticatedengineering or softwarefirmselling in overseas marketsand a medium-sized automotive partsmanufacturer selling to multinational automakers in the domestic and foreign markets. The owners mayormaynot be poor; the firms operate in verydifferentmarkets(urban, rural,local, national, regional andinternational); embodydifferent levelsof skills, capital, sophistication and growth orientation, and maybein the formal or the informal economy(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2004). Statistical definition of SMEs varies bycountryand is usually based on the numberof employees, and value of sales and/or value of assets (Ayyagariet al, 2003). Due to its ease of collection, the most commonly used variable is the number of employees. The EU and alarge number of OECD, transition anddeveloping countries set the upper limit of number of employees in the SMEs between 200-250, witha few exceptions such as Japan(300 employees) and the USA (500 employees). At the lowerend of the SME sector, a large number of countries define a group, which is a mixture of the self-employed and ―micro‖ enterprises, with less than 10 employees. Irrespective of the level of development of an economy,asignificant proportion ofmicro and, sometimes, small enterprises are found in the informalsector or the shadow economy (OECD, 2002).OECD (2004) in Schneider (2003)compared the size of theinformal sector in 22 transition (former SovietUnion and Central and Eastern Europe) and 21 OECDeconomiesfrom 2000-2002 and found that the sizeofthe informal sector amounted to an average of16.7%, 29.2%and 44.8%of GDP in OECD, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Unioneconomies, respectively. As the United States took the big jump from agriculture dominated society to an industrialsociety, self-employment statistics also changed dramatically. By 1900, about 80 percent of the work force was self- employed, while about 20 percent worked for other firms. As the year 2000 approaches, the opposite is essentially true. 20 percent of workers today are self-employed, while 30 percent work for other firms and businesses. One might conclude from this that there are fewer small firms in the Country, but that is not true. In fact, small firms are as popular as ever. The decrease in self-employment came from a decline in the number of Independent farmers, which was largely offset by an increase in large firm employment. Osoba (1987) argued that financing strength is the main determinant of small and medium enterprises growth in developing countries. Similarly, Yue and Ma (2008) studied issues pertinent to the sustainable development of technological innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). At the end of their study, they argued that sustainable development of technological innovation in SMEs is a systemic engineering, which involves a number of issues such as technical level, capabilities of key research and develop personnel, availability of fund for research and development and business development etc. SMEs need to develop and implement strategy based on their own characteristics and strive to realize sustainable growth in the long run which cannot be resolved in a short time. Oluba (2009) summarized the contribution of SMEs to an economy, especially developing ones as: Greater utilization of raw materials, employment generation, encourage of rural development, development of entrepreneurship, mobilization of local savings, linkages with bigger industries, provision of regional balance by spreading investments more evenly, provision of avenue for self-employment and provision of opportunity for training managers and semi-skilled workers. Ogunsiji and Ladamu (2010) argued that entrepreneurial orientation is the panacea to the ebbing productivity. Each of these engines of growth like people, market, capital, technology and organization can only flower and blossom fully where the efficacy of entrepreneurial orientation is appreciated and implemented. Asta and Zaneta (2010) examined the growing importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their influence on economic development of Lithuania‘s demand special attention given to processes, tendencies, perspectives in them and encourage the search for the effective SME performance improvement measures. They noted that to improve their environmental performance, economic and social effectiveness, the integrated, based on financial analysis, decision-making model is needed which would be oriented to strategic sustainability goals, not requiring significant time, financial and human resources, The integration of sustainability management accounting (SMA) and composite sustainable development index (ICSD) methodologies makes the basis of sustainable development decision-making model for SMEs. Jones, (2014), opined that, regardless of the size of a company, big data is a reference to data sets too large and complex for companies to manage within their traditional IT systems.But a look past the technical jargon will reveal that big data is about opportunity.The opportunity to learn from a company's data in order to make smarter business decisions.While it may come as no surprise that large enterprise companies are taking advantage of the opportunity that big data affords, some entrepreneurs may not know that small businesses can do the same. Owners of a small business ability to succeed in the face of larger competitors is driven personal intuition and ability to provide a superior service. But big data is changing the business landscape. Chances are some competitors large and small are using big data to enhance product quality, improve marketing operations and further customer relationships. This newfound efficiency of larger competitors can be a very real threat to the sustainability of SME business. A small retailer could analyze the relationship between social-media
  • 3. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 37 | Page conversations and buying trends to quickly capitalize on emerging sales opportunities. Or launching a new online service, ability to analyze a site's visitors and track how they move from page to page so as to understand what engages them, the things that turn them off and detect promotional and cross-selling opportunities. Some believe that big-data analytics projects are too costly and complex for a small business to take on. Indeed most of the analytics solutions on the market were built specifically for larger enterprises, making them costly and complex to implement. This is meaningless to the owners of small businesses who are focused on simply finding the right tool for the right users quickly so as to accomplish more work done faster.Fortunately, with big data now on the minds of everyone, new solutions are coming to the market each day and some have been created for the specific needs of smaller businesses (Jones, 2014). III. Characteristics of Bigdata solution in SME Here are three characteristics small businesses should seek in a big-data solution: 1.1. Flexibility and choice Big-data solutions targeted at large enterprises are typically an all-or-nothing proposition, requiring customers to gut existing systems, thereby imposing a heavy cost and time burden on information-technology departments. This simply doesn‘t work for small businesses. When the marketing department of a small company needs a marketing-automation system, it typically acts independently of the IT department, laying out its requirements, cost justifications and system requirements and then researching and choosing the best solution to meet its needs. As a result, small businesses regularly deploy a variety of solutions throughout the organization, including desktop software for business tasks, a software as a service solution like those of Salesforce or Workday for marketing or HR, a public or private cloud for development and perhaps some custom-built solutions to meet specific needs. This leads to an environment with many different types of data. A big-data solution for small businesses must allow them to choose only the capabilities they need and leverage the solutions and systems already in place. The solution should be complete in having everything a customer might need in one pre-integrated package, but the vendor shouldn‘t force a company to replace a capability it already has implemented and adopted. 1.2. Simplicity A big-data solution for small businesses should be easy to deploy and use and take only a few days or weeks for a company to start using it not months or years. All the capabilities of the system should work together seamlessly. And if the customer is integrating new capabilities with existing systems, it should be possible to accomplish this without the need for expensive specialists. In addition, the system should not require staffers to undergo a lot of training and should include self- service capabilities so a broader audience of analysts and business users can use it without the need for the IT department to become involved. 1.3. Cost Finally, a big-data solution for small businesses must be priced right. Customers should be able to pay for only the capabilities they need, and the licensing strategy should allow them to start small and scale up as the need for analytics increases. This approach is particularly useful for a rapidly growing small business, where it‘s critical for the cost and capabilities of software investments to align with the rate of growth and expansion of the operation. The transition from an intuition-driven company to an analytics-driven company is one small-business owners can embrace. Finding the right IT solution, one geared to the specific needs of the small business, can help make it practical and affordable to benefit from the opportunity big data affords. IV. Bigdata analytics for SME growth In this paper we selected five Big Data solutions for Small and medium Enterprise regional growth, we provided an insight on how they can help grow SMEs. 1.4. IBM's Watson Analytics While many Big Data solutions are built for extremely knowledgeable data scientists and analysts, IBM's Watson Analytics makes advanced and predictive business analytics easily accessible to small businesses. The platform doesn't require any requisite skills of using complex data mining and analysis systems, but automates the process instead. This self-service analytics solution includes a suite of data access, data
  • 4. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 38 | Page refinement and data warehousing services, giving you all the tools you need to prepare and present data yourself in a simple and actionable way to guide decision-making. Unlike other analytics solutions that focus on one area of business, Watson Analytics unifies all your data analysis projects into a single platform — it can be used for all types of data analysis, from marketing to sales, finance, human resources and other parts of your operations. Its "natural language" technology helps businesses identify problems, recognize patterns and gain meaningful insights to answer key questions like what ultimately drive sales, which deals are likely to close, how to make employees happy and more. Watson Analytics takes the complex math and coding of analytics and does it for you. Smart data discovery gives you predictive modeling, data preparation, dashboards and visualizations, all in a few clicks. It can be a spreadsheet on your computer, relational data in a database, report data or data you‘ve stored in a cloud storage service. Below are three major activities in IBM Watson Analytics. Figure 1: Three activities of IBM Watson Analytics Source (ibm.biz/watsonexplorer.) 1.4.1. Search Watson Explorer‘s search combines content and data from many different systems throughout the enterprise, and presents it to users in a single view; dramatically reducing the amount of time spent looking for information and increasing their ability to work smarter. Watson Explorer‘s 360-degree information applications deliver data, analytics and cognitive insights relevant to the user‘s role, context and current activities. 1.4.2. Analyze While structured analytics can provide insighton the what, where and when of a businesschallenge or opportunity, content analyticsprovides insights to answer why and how. Watson Explorer‘s content analytics allow enterprises to extract meaning and insight from natural language content such as customer comments and research reports, and to use those insights to streamline business operations, uncover risk, gain a better understanding of customers and make better decisions. 1.4.3. Interpret The IBM Watson Developer Cloud provides a portfolio of content and services through application programminginterfaces (APIs) to help create a new generation of cognitive applications to enhance, scale and augment human expertise. The services make direct participation in the era of cognitive systems available to everyone who shares the goal of a new partnership between people and computers. Watson Explorer provides the ability to integrate a growing list of these services for an enhanced experience by leveraging the combined strengthof search, analytic and cognitive capabilities. 1.5. Google Analytics SME owners done need expensive software to begin gathering data. It can start from an asset you already have, your website. Google Analytics, Google's free Web-traffic-monitoring tool, provides all types of data about website visitors, using a multitude of metrics and traffic sources. With Google Analytics, you can extract long-term data to reveal trends and other valuable information, so you can make wise, data-driven decisions. For instance, by tracking and analyzing visitor behavior such as where traffic is coming from, how audiences engage and how long visitors stay on a website (known as bounce rates). You can make better decisions when striving to meet your website's or online store's goals. Another example is analyzing social media traffic, which will allow you to make changes to your social media marketing campaigns based on what is and is not working. Studying mobile visitors can also help you extract information about customers browsing your site using their mobile devices, so you can provide a better mobile experience.
  • 5. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 39 | Page 1.5.1. Architecture of Google Analytics T he diagram in figure 2 show an architecture of Google Analytics and how it works Figure 2: Architecture of Google Analytics Source (http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-architecture-of-Google-Analytics) When any visitor accesses any section of your website, a request is made to the webserver to display the page. The webserver process the request and sends back the response to the browser. When the visitor's browser loads the page, it executes the javascript GA tracking code present in that webpage. Google Analytics will extract user cookie values. It updates and creates the cookies as necessary and sends the request to Google Analytics server where the data is processed. After the processing all the data then forms the part of the Google Analytics Report. This data is finally available for user‘s view in the user‘s Dashboard. 1.6. InsightSquared InsightSquared connects to business solutions such as Salesforce, QuickBooks, ShoreTel Sky, Google Analytics, Zendesk and more to automatically gather data and extract actionable information. For instance, using data from customer relationship management (CRM) software, InsightSquared can provide a wealth of small business sales intelligence, such as pipeline forecasting, lead generation and tracking, profitability analysis, and activity monitoring. It can also help businesses discover trends, strengths and weaknesses, sales team wins and losses, and more. In addition to sales tools, InsightSquared's suite of products also includes marketing, financial, staffing and support analytics tools. 1.7. Canopy Labs Big Data will not just help a SME owner make better business decisions; it can help you predict the future, too. Canopy Labs, a customer analytics platform, uses customer behavior, sales trends and predictive behavioral models to extract valuable information for future marketing campaigns and to help you discover the most opportune product recommendations. One of Canopy Labs' standout features is the 360-degree Customer View, which shows comprehensive data about each individual customer. Its purpose is two-fold: first, it reveals each customer‘s standing, such as lifetime value, loyalty and engagement level, as well as purchase histories, email behaviors and other metrics and this shows which customers are profitable and worth reaching out to. Second, with this information, businesses can better create personalized offers, track customer responses and launch improved outreach campaigns. Canopy Labs handles the complex, technical side of Big Data, so all you have to focus on are your customers. 1.8. Tranzlogic This is no secret that credit card transactions are chock full of invaluable data. Although access was once limited to companies with significant resources, customer intelligence company Tranzlogic makes this information available to small businesses without the big business budget.
  • 6. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 40 | Page Tranzlogic works with merchants and payment systems to extract and analyze proprietary data from credit card purchases. This information can then be used to measure sales performance, evaluate customers and customer segments, improve promotions and loyalty programs, launch more-effective marketing campaigns, write better business plans, and perform other tasks that lead to smarter business decisions. Moreover, Tranzlogic requires no technical skill to get started. it is a turnkey program, meaning there is no installation or programming required. Simply log in to access your merchant portal. 1.9. Qualtrics SME owners that donot currently have any rich sources for data, conducting research may be the answer.Qualtrics lets businesses conduct a wide range of studies and surveys to gain quality insights to guide data-driven decision making. Qualtrics offers three types of real-time insights: customer, market and employee insights. To gain customer insight, use Qualtrics' survey software for customer satisfaction, customer experience and website feedback surveys. To study the market, Qualtrics also offers advertising testing, concept testing and market research programs. And when it comes to a team, Qualtrics can help conduct employee surveys, exit interviews and reviews. Other options include online samples, academic research and mobile surveys. V. Discussions SME can be in any of this forms micro/cottage industry, small scale industry, medium scale industry or large scale industry. Micro/Cottage Industry This is an industry with total capital employed of not more than 15 million working capital but excluding cost of land and or a labour size of not more than 10 workers. Small – Scale Industry An industry with total Capital employed of over 1.5 million but not more than 50 million, including working capital but excluding cost of land, and or labour size of 11 – 100 workers. Medium – Scale Industry An industry with a total capital employed of over 50 million but not more than 200 million, including working capital but excluding cost of land, and or a labour size of 101 – 300 workers. Large – Scale Industry An industry with a total capital employed of over 200 million, including working capital but excluding cost of land or a labour size of over 300 workers. Comparatively, most advanced countries seemed to have agreed on a maximum limit of 500 employees as a small Firm. 1.10. Problems of Small and Medium Enterprises Baadom (2004) asserted that the following problems militate against the effective operation of small and medium enterprises; Poor Implementation of Policies: there have been many good policies formulated in the past by the government in developing countries to improve SMEs, but weak implementation has made it impossible to realize the goal. Lack of Continuity: most small scale establishments are sole proprietorship and such establishment often ceases to function as soon as the owner loses interest or dies. This raises the risk of financing such business.
  • 7. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 41 | Page Poor Capital Outlay: inadequate capital outlay has often affected small scale business adversely. Financiers often regard the sector has high risk area and therefore feel skeptical about committing their fund to it. Poor Management Expertise: Management has always been a problem in this sector as most small scale businesses do not have the required management expertise to carry them through once the business start growing. The situation gets compounded as training is not usually accorded priority in such establishments. Inadequate Information Base: Small scale business enterprises are usually characterized by poor record keeping and that usually starve of necessary information required for planning and management purposes. This usually affects the realization of the sector. Lack of Raw Materials: In some small scale business enterprises, raw materials are sourced externally, hence the fate of such enterprises to foreign exchange behavior. The fluctuation of foreign exchange may therefore make it difficult to plan and that may precipitate same stock that may destabilize the setup. Poor Accounting System: the accounting system of most small scale business enterprises lack standard and does not make room for the assessment of their performances. That creates opportunity for mismanagement, which consequently may lead to enterprise failure. Unstable Policy Environment: Government policy instability has not been helpful to small scale businesses. That has been destabilizing and has indeed sent many SMEs to early fold-ups. 1.11. Life Cycle of Small and Medium Enterprises In general, the ideal life cycle of small and medium enterprises as posited by Udhe (1999) can be divided into four phases viz: start up, accelerated growth, stable growth and maturity. Start-up:usually lasts for a period of one or three years during which the founder supervises the whole business activities that may be carried out by family members, friends or small number of employees. The Phase of Accelerated Growth:usually lasts three to four years. During this period, the founder or a management expert handles management. At this point, a corporate organization is developed thereby leading to separation of ownership from management. The Stable Growth phase typically has duration of two to five years. During this period, management expertise and the corporate organization are divided into numerous departments and inflow of stable, long-term venture capital from corporate investors begins to appear. Finally, the Phase of Maturity that may start after several years of beginning in the business adopts the same type of management as stable growth phase but major difference being that sources of funding may become more diverse. 1.12. Strategic Importance of SMEs In spite of the foregoing strategic advantages of SMEs, some analysts have argued that many assumed strategic benefits of small firms may be ‗myth‘ rather than ‗reality‘. The following provides critical review of these arguments and their empirical evidence. Employment: In most developing countries, micro enterprises and small-scale enterprisesaccount for the majority of firms and a large share of the employment. The relative importance of small business varies significantly across countries and within a given country, across stages of development over time. A comparative study of manufacturing firms by Snadgross and Briggs (1996) shows common pattern in the transformation of the size distribution of firms as industrialization by concluding that small-scale enterprises play a declining role as countriesdevelop. Labour Intensity: Small firm employ a large share of the labour force in many developing countries. Theoretically, SMEs are regarded to be more labour intensive than large firms. However, some research evidence suggests that many SMEs are in fact more capital intensive (Little, Mazxumbar and Page, 1987). Labour intensity exhibits more variation across industries than among firm-sized groups within industries (Snodgrass and Biggs, 1996).
  • 8. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 42 | Page Job Creation: It is often argued that SMEs are important for employment growth. This conviction has not been supported by empirical evidence, while job creation rates are substantially higher for small firms, so are gross destruction rates, SMEs exhibit high birth rates and high death rates and many small firms fail to grow (Davis, et al 1993). Efficiency: Most studies of developing countries show that the smallest firms are least efficient and there is some evidence that both small and large firms are relatively inefficient compared to medium-scale firms (Little, Mazumdar and Page, 1987). It is often argued that SMEs are more innovative than larger firms probably due to the adoption of ‗niche strategies‘, such as high product quality, flexibility and responsibility to customerneeds as means of competing with large-scale businesses (Snodgrass and Biggs 1996). However,ACS, Morck and Young (1999) found that these innovations often take time, and large firmsmay have more resources to adopt and implement them. Wages and Benefits: Although, research evidence suggests that larger employers offer better jobs in terms of working conditions than SMEs. (David, et al 1993). There is some evidence that this disparity narrows as industrialization proceeds (Snodgrass and Biggs, 1996). Social, Political and Equity Justifications: SMEs are often said to contribute to a more equal distribution of income or wealth. However, SMEs owners and workers are likely to be the poorest of the poor, so that SME promotion may not be the most effective poverty alleviation instrument. In reality, the desire of governments to promote SMEs is often based on social and political considerations rather than economic grounds. VI. Conclusions Big data has now become a popular term used to describe the exponential growth and availability of data both structured and unstructured. In recent times, big data is seen to be as important to business and society as the internet has become. More data may lead to more accurate analyses. More accurate analyses may lead to more confident decision making. And better decisions can mean greater operational efficiencies, cost reduction and reduced risks to SMEs. Therefore, in this paper, we buttressed the extent to which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from using big data and implementing same to SMEs analytical practice. We highlighted the importance of bigdata to SMEs. We analysed some bigdata analytics that can enhance SME regional growth. We also considered the potential usefulness of big data to SMEs. SMEs should seethe fundamental potential of Big Data for better decision making and policy creation in markets and business models, and begin to explore the opportunities. Big Data Value represents an extremely strategic and profitable opportunity for SMEs. In order to succeed very well in the world where its regions is driven by innovation and competitiveness, it is necessary to foster the development and wide-scale adoption of Big Data Value technologies, successful use cases and data-driven business models. Reference [1]. Margaret Rouse (2011) small to medium enterprise (SME), Business intelligence - business analytics retrieved from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/small-to-medium-enterprise-SME Accessed Wednesday, June 17, 2015 by 2:57pm GMT+1 [2]. Southard jones (2014) Retrieved fromhttp://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235338 [3]. Sonia Buchholtz, MaciejBukowski, AleksanderŚniegocki(2014), Big and open data in Europe -A growth engine or a missed opportunity?‖,Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies, report commissioned by demosEUROPA, 2014 [4]. Gabriella Catteneo (2014), The European Data Market, IDC presentation given at the NESSI summit in Brussels on 27 May 2014, available online at: http://www.nessi-europe.eu/?Page=nessi_summit_2014 [5]. Andrew SsegawaKiggundu (2013), How can Big Data benefit SME‘s in developing African Countries?, MSc. Thesis, Univesity of Botswana. [6]. Safiriyu, AdijatMorenikejiandNjogo, BibianaOluchukwu (2012), Impact of small and medium scale enterprises in theGeneration of employment in Lagos state, Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review Vol. 1, No.11; July 2012. [7]. Snodgrass. D. R & T Briggs (1996), Industrialization and small Firm Patterns and Policies, A co-publication of the international Center for Economic growth and Harvard Institute for International Development. San Francisco, California. [8]. Little, M.D.; Mazumdar, D. and Page, J. M. (1987). ―Small Manufacturing Enterprises: A comparative study of India and other Economies, Oxford, Oxford University Press. [9]. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) (2004).OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. Available OECD Publications Service, Paris Cedex 16, France [10]. Ayyagari, Meghana and Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli and Beck, Thorsten (2003), Small and Medium Enterprises across the Globe: A New Database. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3127. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=636547. [11]. Lawal, A. A.And Bello, M.A. (2010) Business Policy and Strategic Management. Lagos. Suhanif Nigerian Enterprises. [12]. Schneider, Friedrich (2003): The shadow economy, in: Charles K. Rowley and Friedrich Schneider (eds.), Encyclopedia of Public Choice, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. [13]. Osoba, A. M. (1987). Small-Scale Enterprises in the Development Process, In Osoba, A.M. (Eds.).Towards the Development of Small-Scale Industries in Nigeria, NISER, Ibadan. PP. 8-24. [14]. Asta, L. &Zaneta, S. (2010). Sustainable development decision-making model for small and medium enterprises.Environmental Research, Engineering and Management. 2(52), 14-24
  • 9. Implementing bigdata analytics for small and medium enterprise (SME) regional growth DOI: 10.9790/0661-17643543 www.iosrjournals.org 43 | Page [15]. Ogunsiji, S. O. and Ladanu, W. K. (2010). Entrepreneurial orientation as a panacea for the ebbing productivity in Nigerian small and medium enterprises: A theoretical perspective. International Business Research, 3 (4), 192-199. [16]. Oluba N. Martin (2009), Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and Economic Growth, Pakistan Journal of Business and Economic Review Vol. l. 2, Number 1 (2009). [17]. Baadom, S. B.(2004). Fundamentals of Business Management in Nigeria.Port-Harcourt: AnoPublishers. [18]. Yue, F. & Ma, L. (2008).Research on the sustainable development of technological innovation in small and medium enterprises.Pp 1051-1054