Constructing meaning with business analytics: a qualitative exploration of creativity as a catalyst for insight generation

Abstract

Business Analytics (BA) is predominantly theorised as a rational, data-driven process supporting managerial decision-making; however, this framing obscures the interpretive and creative work through which analytical outputs acquire decision relevance. This study conceptualises creativity in BA use as a generative micro-level mechanism through which decision support is enacted within sociometrical practice. Drawing on the Componential Theory of Creativity and a sociomaterial perspective, we theorise creativ - ity as emerging from the interplay between users’ expertise, motivation, and technological artefacts within organisational decision contexts. Based on interviews and focus groups, we examine how users perceive creativity in BA, how it manifests throughout analytical processes, and how it influences insight development and decision support. Findings show that creativity permeates all phases of analytics – from task formulation to visualisation – enabling problem reframing, alternative scenario construction, and sys - tematic expansion of the decision space beyond standardised algorithmic outputs. By integrating two theoretical perspectives, this study advances decision systems research by theorising creativity as a cognitive micro-foundation through which analytical out - puts are transformed into contextually grounded and strategically meaningful decisions – a mechanism of heightened consequence in increasingly automated and AI-augmented environments.