ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the impact of recent technological developments on the ways that data can be accessed and analysed for the purpose of business planning in general, and retail market and performance evaluation more specifically. It presents big data specifically, starting with a definition of the concept and some simple illustrations to fix ideas. The chapter discusses the scope and significance of efforts to mobilise access to new data sources for the benefit of social sciences in the UK. The exploitation of data generated by social media has spawned a rapidly growing research field. Work within the Geospatial Data Analysis and Simulation (TALISMAN) node of the UK National Centre for Research Methods has explored the value of these data sets as a means to represent and understand the movement patterns of individuals according to purpose, location and activity throughout the day.
