Advice Utilization From Predictive Analytics Tools: The Trend is Your Friend

Abstract

Management decision-making is increasingly supported by new data types and advanced predictive analytics tools. Prior research suggests that the inclusion of new data types–such as social media data–in forecasting models can improve forecasting. We explore whether managers’ operational decisions differ depending on the data type used by a predictive analytics tool and the consistency of the trend with prior developments. Experimental results show that the extent to which managers use predictions from analytics tools is a joint function of the data type utilized and trend consistency. If a trend predicted by an analytics tool reveals a downward break from prior positive developments (i.e., an..