A paradox perspective on using (big) data in micro- and meso-level creative processes: A case study of a media production organization.

We explore how (big) data is used to initiate creative processes and to increasingly rationalize decision-making during. Our study employs a qualitative nested case study of an extreme case, being a leading European media content production organization, with a strong track record in developing internationally acclaimed media formats. In particular we focus on how integrating (big) data and analytics unbalances the manifestation of the rationality vs. intuition (paradoxical) tension in the micro and mesofoundations of the creative organization. Our findings highlight that the increased use and adoption of (big) data and data-based processes can intensify the reliance on the opposite side of the paradoxical tension, i.e. relying on experience-based, gut-feeling intuition and deriving inspiration from the immediate environment rather than from (big) data sourced and processed by the company. The findings shed light on how data is used in the creative process of an organization, why it can be resisted or neglected, and we identify a few dialectic approaches that are used to bridge the rationality vs. intuition gap.