Networked Decision-Making for Startups: Integrating Big Data with Artificial Intelligence

Startups play an incredible role in improving innovation, employment, and market competition. However, they have challenges such as; scarcity of resources, an unpredictable market, and the need to make decisions quickly. Big Data Analytics (BDA) holds potentials that may enable organizations to enhance their strategic, operational as well as tactical decision making. The collaboration between systems-oriented frameworks and big data analysis has transformed how business leaders identify patterns, overcome adversities, and discover unknown opportunities. However, there are several retaining factors that hinders the implementation of BDA such as; lack of talents or skilled personnel, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of understanding of data driven methodologies. This research formulates a big data analytical structure with a systems-thinking developmental focus for startups that supports collaborative decision making. The study employed survey questionnaires and interviews with founders of startups, analytics specialists, and the heads of startup incubators with over one hundred businesses from multiple sectors. Advanced quantitative techniques support the conceptual validity and properties of the framework. Promising discoveries revealed that data literacy has a moderating effect between leadership endorsement and big data utilisation, mediating the impact on effective decision-making and revenue improvement. To the entrepreneurs, the politicians, and the business incubator gurus, this research offers notable implications revising the roles of culture of data, the dynamics of leadership, and training regimens.