Big Data, Little Theory: Exploring The Structure Of Digital Content Use

In response to the exponential growth in stored digital content, in this paper we present a theoretical framework to better explain possibilities for digital content use. This framework—set within the context of dynamic digital content and variability in user needs—is based upon better understanding three attributes that define the nature of digital content: symbols, meaning, and application, to identify: (1) eight basic “states” of digital content, and (2) eight “classes” of digital content use. We suggest how the theoretical framework we present accounts for current anomalies in IS research, and provides theory that is theoretically and operationally useful.