The Role of Microsoft Excel in Data Analysis and Decision-Making: An Integrative Review of Capabilities, Evidence, and Risks

Abstract

Microsoft Excel is a popular tool for organizing, analyzing, and communicating data, but the evidence of its utility in decision making is scattered throughout information systems, software engineering, accounting, economics and life-science research. This paper reviews 16 scholarly sources, along with one textbook and one vendor documentation to explore the role Excel plays in data analysis, the relationship between data-driven analysis and decision quality, and the associated risks. The sources have been identified using targeted searches, followed by screening for explicit inclusion criteria, verification with the publisher or repository records, and thematization. The findings suggest that the wide range of functions Excel offers and its ease of use are why the product has remained so viable even in small and medium-sized businesses as well as that data-driven decision-making has been linked to improved firm performance. It is times and again found in these papers that other mistakes usually occur, there is no formal quality control and as a consequence analytical failures, but also that the advantages of a decision depends on the organizational competency and not only on the tool itself. The paper states that Excel should be considered as a very useful but conditionally reliable decision support tool which requires testing, governance and user skill and that 'scripted or database-based tools' should be used for large data sets or if the consequences are significant. There were no primary data gathered.