Psychology of Business Intelligence Tools: Needs-Affordances-Features Perspective

Abstract

This study applied the Needs-Affordances-Features (NAF) framework to study psychological motivations behind the use of Business Intelligence (BI) tools especially when the use of such tools is voluntary. Our findings suggest that psychological needs motivate the use of BI tools that provide 13 affordances to fulfill five psychological needs, namely autonomy, competence, relatedness, having a place and self-realization. These affordances were identified through a review of six publicly available BI tools. This study posits that three groups of affordances––creation, collaboration, and communication––explain the relationship between psychological needs and applications of BI. This study generates important implications for BI research by providing an overarching framework for the affordances of BI tools as a whole and explaining the importance of psychological needs that motivate the use of BI tools. The results also provide a new lens and common vocabulary for future studies and design of BI tools.