Amazon in the Air: Innovating with Big Data at Lufthansa

Big data offers great opportunities for innovation. However, at the end of 2014, at the peak of its hype, big data deployment was still scarce and failures abounded. This article presents a case of how Lufthansa, the largest airline in Europe, successfully tackled the task of discovering value from big data, addressing the inherent technical complexities, and transforming their business model of selling airline tickets to customers to one that we call "Amazon in the Air" where service dominant logic prevails. This case demonstrates that IT innovation is the business imperative to survive and exemplifies the complex business environment and rapid changes for which big data is being considered. Our case study also sheds light on the challenges and critical success factors for innovating with big data and how to navigate through uncharted waters, employing new thinking and new approaches to seize innovation with big data.