Title: Adoption of business intelligence systems in Indian fashion retail

Authors: Saji K. Mathew

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN 600 036, India

Abstract: Using a classical framework in innovation adoption, this study focussed on BI systems adoption in two Indian retail organisations belonging to two different segments. One case site belonged to a small scale fashion retail which was owned by a single individual with two outlets. The owner made most major decisions usually based on intuition. The use of software was usually limited to spreadsheets. The other type involved a retailer who had numerous outlets all over India. With a professional management and major investments in centralised information technology infrastructure and applications, business decisions were sometimes supported by business intelligence software developed solely for the purpose of assessing sales and managing stocks scientifically. However BI systems were not yet strategically deployed as an engine for competition.

Keywords: business intelligence; innovation adoption; fashion retailing; ICT; information technology; communications technology; mark-down; technology adoption; retailer categories; service providers; consumer behaviour; India; retail trade; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; retail outlets; decision making; intuition; computer software; spreadsheets; large companies; professional management; major investments; centralised infrastructures; centralised applications; business decisions; sales assessment; stock management; scientific principles; strategic deployment; Karnataka; competition; business information systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2012.045718

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2012 Vol.9 No.3, pp.261 - 277

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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