ABSTRACT
Digitization and digitalization underpin the digital transformation that demarcates what K. Schwab called a fourth industrial revolution. When the fourth industrial revolution is viewed in this way, the potential contribution that qualitative inquiry can make to understanding this digital transformation in context is profound, central, and far-reaching. Similarly, we do not want big data, thickened thin data, small data, thick data, digitization, digitalization, or digital transformations simply because they are dazzling or the latest must-have brand. Thick description, and the thick interpretation it enables, can complement and enhance conclusions reached from the algorithmic analysis of big data. In an era of increasing interest in “Big Data,” Y. Wang has been prominent in promoting the use of thick data in corporate arenas to counter a growing loss of focus on context, in the corporate rush to collect and analyze more and more data and produce more and more algorithmic customer data doubles.
