Internet of Things adoption for reconfiguring decision-making processes in asset management

Abstract

Purpose: Managers are increasingly looking to adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) to include the vast amount of big data generated in their decision-making processes. The use of IoT might yield many benefits for organizations engaged in civil infrastructure management, but these benefits might be difficult to realize as organizations are not equipped to handle and interpret this data. The purpose of this paper is to understand how IoT adoption affects decision-making processes. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper the changes in the business processes for managing civil infrastructure assets brought about by IoT adoption are analyzed by investigating two case studies within the water management domain. Propositions for effective IoT adoption in decision-making processes are derived. Findings: The results show that decision processes in civil infrastructure asset management have been transformed to deal with the real-time nature of the data. The authors found the need to make organizational and business process changes, development of new capabilities, data provenance and governance and the need for standardization. IoT can have a transformative effect on business processes. Research limitations/implications: Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the propositions further. Practical implications: The paper shows that data provenance is necessary to be able to understand the value and the quality of the data often generated by various organizations. Managers need to adapt new capabilities to be able to interpret the data. Originality/value: This paper fulfills an identified need to understand how IoT adoption affects decision-making processes in asset management in order to be able to achieve expected benefits and mitigate risk.