1. Introduction
Business intelligence and analytics (BIA) is considered one of the most critical technologies, systems, practices, and applications that help organizations develop a deeper understanding of business data and gain a competitive advantage while improving operations and product development and strengthening relationships with customers [
1,
2]. BIA has an even more important role in the banking sector by enabling experts and managers to make better, accurate, timely, and relevant decisions so as to increase the productivity and profitability of the bank and be able to comply with the different regulatory and environmental dimensions of this sector [
3].
BIA, nowadays, is a trendy issue and a compulsory prerequisite for creating an outstanding corporate image, which goes in line with implementing a successful plan regarding using technology extensively. Thus, this supports business decisions and gains a competitive advantage in today’s dynamic environment, which requires outstanding efforts for dedicating massive budgets to research and development (R&D). Data are a focal point and are considered the fuel of the future since they can be processed efficiently and used effectively in supporting risky occurrences and decisions that can be heavily reflected in the performance of corporates [
4,
5].
Business intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term that includes structures, tools, databases, applications, and methodologies to analyze data by converting raw data into meaningful and helpful information to support business managers’ decisions [
6]. Banking areas, such as branch performance, sales, risk assessment, electronic banking, customer segmentation, and retention, are generally excellent for applying various business concepts and analytics, technologies, and tools, including data mining (DM), data warehousing, and decision support systems (DSS). Therefore, top management must constantly focus on solving challenging problems and seizing opportunities for the banking sector to succeed and excel in today’s business environment. This requires computerized support for managerial decision making, thereby implying a need for decision support, business intelligence, and analytics systems [
7]. Business intelligence systems (BIS) emerged from technical solutions that provide data integration, analytical capabilities, and data mining to provide stakeholders at various levels with valuable information to make their decisions effectively and successfully.
In this regard, data analyses can contribute to solving and developing banking problems and reaching the best results for decision making [
8]. Managers cannot see the correlation between different variables in business data because the volume of data is constantly increasing, and it is substantial. Moreover, managers need additional work to reach a conclusion related to the behavioral pattern and the wants and needs of customers. In addition, many additional works are needed to understand and retain the right customers and acquire new ones; consequently, business intelligence through data analyses helps managers and product managers identify different categories of customers, develop products or services aligned with customer needs, define competition and pricing strategy, improve revenue management, increase sales, and expand the customer segment [
5].
Researchers have defined business intelligence as the ability of businesses to think, plan, predict, solve problems, understand, devise new ways to improve business and decision-making processes appropriately, enable effective actions, and help create and achieve business goals [
9]. Accordingly, the processes, technologies, tools, applications, data, databases, dashboards, scorecards, and online analytical processing (OLAP) are stated to play a role in enabling the capabilities that define business intelligence [
10]. BIA practices and tools are seen as critical enablers for data-driven decision making and provide the framework and support banks’ needs to make accurate and fact-based decisions and do business successfully and distinctively [
11].
Even though the research interest in business intelligence and analytics usage in the banking-industry sector is increasing, past studies supporting the area cannot be considered as highly grown. Further, the existing literature does not provide satisfactory evidence as to what factors affect business intelligence and analytics usage in addition to the inconsistencies in the results. At the same time, banks’ use of business intelligence and analytics remains high, especially with the availability of huge data sets on customers that can help better decision making in this context. Thus, this study seeks to examine what factors affect the use of business intelligence and analytics in the banking sector in an effort to help this sector plan for better business intelligence and analytics use and adoption.
The following section presents a review of key related literature, and, after that,
Section 3 explains the theoretical framework and hypotheses development. Data collection and methodology are presented in
Section 4, whereas
Section 5 presents the research results. After the discussion of the results in
Section 6,
Section 7 presents the research contributions, and the last section presents the conclusion along with the limitations and directions for further research.
3. Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses Development
Although technology adoption is very well structured, very few studies have been conducted to determine the influencing factors associated with the adoption of BI systems [
25]. Following [
26], this study uses the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework developed by [
27] to examine those three elements that influence how banks adopt and implement business intelligence and analytics technology, namely the technological, the organizational, and the environmental contexts. Consequently, this study expanded the TOE framework by including new vital additional elements based on the recommendations of [
28], namely technology-supporting infrastructure and the presence of a champion, as represented in
Figure 1. The following sections explain in detail the theoretical framework and its key elements.
The main reason for applying the TOE framework in the current study context is due to the mentioned framework and is one of the most holistic frameworks that can explain technology adoption in organizations [
24]. In addition, the TOE framework looks more into the organization as a whole, not only on the individual level on how the organization adopts and accepts the use of new technologies. Hence, this framework can give more details in all terms. This is why numerous researchers used the TOE framework as a theoretical foundation for studying organizational adoption and use of new technologies since it was introduced in 1990 [
26]. Not only this, but it agrees with Awa et al. [
25], who claimed that the TOE framework brings both human and nonhuman actors into the network, which is a strength that handles the illusion of accumulated traditions and technocentric predictions of most other frameworks (e.g., TAM, TRA, UTAUT, and TPB). Hence, we believe that the TOE framework will help to achieve a more complete understanding of business intelligence and analytics adoption and use in the banking sector in Jordan.
3.1. Technological Context
The technological context consists of three key elements:
3.1.1. Data-Related Infrastructure Capabilities
Data can be viewed as a large-scale local need, an essential component, and a driver of innovation; they can be considered an asset for any organization, especially banks. Since they mainly help in the development of any products, it is recommended to understand them in a unique and innovative way. According to [
29], the use of intelligent data tools is an important component for effective data mining and is an indispensable enabling factor for using BIA. Hence, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 1 (H1). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of data-related infrastructure capabilities on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.1.2. Technology Supporting Infrastructure
Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure is a broad set of supporting technologies and necessary standards that enable organizations to share data and manipulate resources through a compatible and interconnected manner [
1,
28]. The availability and compatibility of the IT infrastructure allow companies to obtain and share real-time information and analyze customer data, develop products, analyze competitive markets, and share data and process resources across business units through a compliant, interconnected, and unified IT infrastructure [
4]. Hence, we argue that a proper IT infrastructure can heavily enhance the use of BIA in the banking industry. Therefore, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 2 (H2). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of technology-supporting infrastructure on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.1.3. Data-Management Challenges
Data management is one of the challenges of using BIA. It is crucial to use BIA data that are reliable, current, relevant, predictable, and accurate [
30,
31,
32]. Data quality is a fundamental issue in the selective investigation of data and refers to the consistency and breadth of the data [
33,
34]. Today’s business intelligence frameworks can work with different types of data, such as mathematical and nonmathematical data, and their quality is very critical. In fact, data quality explains why some correlations are effective with their BI engine while others are not. Examination indicates that clean, actionable data may be key factors for achieving business intelligence [
35,
36]. Yet, the task of ensuring data quality is an unpredictable endeavor and requires sustained effort [
31]. Thus, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 3 (H3). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of data-management challenges on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.2. Organizational Context
The organizational context comprises three key elements:
3.2.1. Top-Management Support
Senior-management support ranks highly as a critical success factor (CSF) for BIA [
37]. In fact, senior-management support is essential to the success of BIA, according to Ref. [
38], and is, perhaps, the biggest barrier to using business intelligence. High-level hierarchical management needs to deliberately focus on the use of business intelligence and business to maximize its benefits [
39]. In addition, BIA must be driven from the most important levels within banks, and the inability to do so leads BIA drivers to be unable to reach the maximum capacity [
39]. Senior-management support helps drive the use of business intelligence and intelligence by overseeing change measures, acquiring core assets, and supporting collaboration between specialized units [
30,
40]. Accordingly, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 4 (H4). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of top-management support on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.2.2. Presence-of-Champion
It refers to a highly enthusiastic person with in-depth knowledge of the organization’s business processes and the technological innovation being discussed and committed to the innovation. Champions promote innovation by providing information, creating awareness, providing material resources, providing political support, and gaining organizational acceptance of the innovation, which are crucial for the successful adoption and implementation [
5]. We believe that the presence of a champion that leads and supports the adoption and use of BIA in banks will have a huge impact. Thus, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 5 (H5). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of presence of the champion on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.2.3. Talent-Management Challenges
To execute BIA adequately, a mix of business and IT experts is considered significant [
31]. Experts who have the necessary abilities, especially the logical capacities, are needed to utilize the full potential of BIA tools and technology [
41]. Hence, we argue that the presence of talent in both business and technology aspects will play a key role in the use and utilization of BIA in the banking sector. Therefore, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 6 (H6). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of talent-management challenges on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.3. Environmental Context
The environmental context comprises three key elements:
3.3.1. Competitive Pressure
It refers to the pressure factor that the bank feels from its competitors in the financial field. This competition makes banks look for better technologies to raise their efficiency, increase their efficiency and deals, and increase the number of customers [
42]. In fact, technology adoption and usage in the banking sector are heavily driven by competition [
43]. Hence, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 7 (H7). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of competitive pressure on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.3.2. External Market Influence
In addition to the competition, the banking sector is always under the external pressures of new products (services) and demanding customers. Hence, banks always rely on new technologies, such as data warehouses and BIA, as strategic initiatives to counter these factors [
44]. In [
45], it is noted that banks facing environmental uncertainties “engage in greater advisory and research activities” to understand their internal and market activities better. In addition, [
26] emphasized that banks have a higher use of IT and technologies, such as business intelligence, which can greatly impact their effort to address external market influences [
12]. Consequently, the following hypothesis will be tested:
Hypothesis 8 (H8). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of external market influence on the level of BIA usage extent.
3.3.3. Regulatory Compliance
The banking-industry sector is a very regulated sector, and compliance with laws and regulations requires achieving a high level of accuracy in data collection and analyses [
44]. For example, in the United States, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) expects banks to meet the requirements of explicit monetary details. In the context of the current study, the value of BIA usage in this setup, it is very important to collect and analyze accurate and productive data to meet the administrative disclosure requirements and other compliance regulations [
44,
46]. Thus, the following hypothesis is suggested:
Hypothesis 9 (H9). There is a statistically significant effect of the level of regulatory compliance on the level of BIA usage extent.
Building on previous discussions and based on the TOE framework, the conceptual model is summarized in
Figure 1, which presents the factors considered for this study within the technological, organizational, and environmental contexts of the TOE framework.
6. Discussion
This study examined the factors affecting business intelligence and analytics use in the banking sector. The factors analyzed in this study were organized in three dimensions that include technological, organizational, and environmental contexts based on the TOE framework. The results showed that data infrastructure and data-management capabilities have a significant effect on the extent to which business intelligence is used, and business and technology-supporting infrastructure has a significant impact as well. In fact, organizations, especially banks, need to have a robust data infrastructure that serves as the base layer for business intelligence, with an advanced IT infrastructure to better deploy business intelligence applications across business functions to have higher rates of BIA usage.
One of the most important factors that is necessary to adopt and use business intelligence in the banking context was the support of senior management, and the results showed that such support has a significant impact, as expected. Senior management and a great “champion” can initiate the use of business intelligence within their organizations, not only through providing the necessary resources, but also by encouraging their use and utilization in all bank operations and management decisions. In fact, resilient and sound senior management has a huge impact on BIA adoption, whereby the higher level of talent management results in the higher pioneering of the bank in the use of BIA.
The results clearly show the importance of the environmental dimension on the level of using BIA. The higher the competitive pressure and the greater the competition between sectors, the more banks will increase their BIA usage. Moreover, the results revealed the influence of the external market factors on increasing the adoption and usage of business intelligence as a way to create competitive advantages. Organizations view the effective use of BIA as a strategy that drives organizational performance and uses their critical data to outperform competitors. Thus, the strategic use of business intelligence adds advantages to organizations. Finally, the results show the impact of regulatory compliance on the level of BIA usage, whereby the higher the rate of regulatory compliance, the higher the rate of BIA usage. In fact, BIA represents an important tool for banks to comply with not only local and internal regulations but also international standards and regulations.
8. Conclusions
Business intelligence and analytics is a key tool that deals with large amounts of diverse data, whether structured or unstructured [
2], thus providing banks with the huge value of achieving better operations and great competitive advantages. With the dynamic environment we are facing nowadays, every bank should emphasize the importance of implementing a massive business-intelligence system to keep up with the fast pace of technology. In this study, we studied the factors that influence the use of business intelligence and analytics in the banking sector. Different factors have been examined, including technical, organizational, and environmental dimensions. The results of the analysis confirmed not only the importance of these factors on business intelligence and analytics adoption and use but also on the huge value for the banking sector that can be achieved by such technology. In fact, it is extremely important to understand the dynamics of these factors, not only to achieve better usage of business intelligence, but also to better plan and implement such technologies in the banking sector.
The results presented in this study reveal that to achieve better fact-based decision making, business-intelligence technologies require the presence of quality-level data-related infrastructure capabilities, great senior-management support and better “market environment” awareness. Yet, the researchers believe that more factors with more comprehensive and larger populations need to be studied in order to fully understand the critical success factor of BIA usage and utilization. That is, further research can test the proposed model in different contexts, such as the Jordanian public-shareholding firms as they invest heavily in BIA systems, and, in turn, more generalizable results can be obtained. In addition, future research could apply the model to developed countries to compare the results with those of developing counties. Finally, the researchers examined the impact of BIA on firm performance and innovation capabilities, but more research is needed to examine the BIA adoption on organizational effectiveness in a holistic view. To conclude, the results of this study are of supreme implication to the literature in this research area and can motivate additional crucial studies to shed more light on their standings.