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The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of Big Data in higher education institutions.

A qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews was employed to get insights from 23 experts from the Indian higher education sector. Respondents included higher education specialists from information technology, administration and academicians from public and private funded institutions.

Based on competitive advantage and data complexity, four major application areas were identified for the use of Big Data in higher education. These application areas are reporting and compliance; analysis and visualization; security and risk mitigation; and predictive analytics.

Qualitative methodology is suitable to explain constructs and relationships between constructs, but it does not explain the magnitude of the relationships. The lack of Big Data experts in higher education constrained the ability of this research by leading to repeated themes. Finally, including participants from other countries would have assisted further in generalizing the findings.

As both interest and reluctance persists about Big Data, it calls for the application across industries and cost-benefit analyses. A number of researchers have studied the use of Big Data in various fields associated with the applicability, the data availability, the cost, the competence, the privacy, the relevance and the ownership. Very few publications explicitly address the integrative use of Big Data in higher education. So the current study examines the applicability of Big Data analytics in higher education institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of retailers’ organizational controls and controls of their boundary personnel on manufacturers’ outsourcing performance. It further assesses the moderating impact of information symmetry in this context.

Data were collected from 230 Indian apparel manufacturers engaged in outsourcing activities with two international retailers. Organizational control is scrutinized as formal and informal controls, and outsourcing performance is studied in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. The partial least squares approach is used to test the proposed research model.

First, the retailers’ and the boundary person’s formal controls have a direct, positive effect on outsourcing efficiency. Second, although no significant effect of the boundary person’s formal controls on outsourcing effectiveness is identified, a significant effect of retailers’ formal controls on effectiveness is seen. Third, the boundary person’s informal controls are associated with a decrease in efficiency, whereas they have a positive effect on effectiveness. Fourth, although the retailers’ informal controls enhance outsourcing effectiveness, they negatively affect efficiency. Fifth, information symmetry is statistically significant in enhancing outsourcing efficiency and effectiveness.

The results have important implications for retailers and retailers’ boundary persons who are keen to improve their relations with manufacturers. This paper offers practical insights into the ways that manufacturers, boundary personnel and retailers can exercise control mechanisms in order to achieve effective and efficient outsourcing outcomes.

The effect of organizational control and information symmetry on outsourcing performance in typical outsourcing practices in manufacturer‒retailer relationships is shown.