Friend or Foe? The Adoption of Big Data in the Creative Industries

This qualitative exploratory study investigates how organizations in the creative industries integrate big data into their organizational routines. Specifically, this paper explores how creative organizations that operate under conditions of conflicting institutional logics adopt big data. Our empirical focus is the video gaming industry. We examine how video game companies, struggling the competing logics of cultural production and efficiency, adopt and integrate big data into their product development. Which logic is driving and prescribing how big data can be utilized? Our findings explicate the impact of the advent of big data in the gaming industry and related organizational challenges. Our insights also show how organizations in the creative and cultural industries can take advantage of big data while still preserving its traditions and artistic core.