Few topics have received as much recent attention from researchers across disciplines, practitioners, policymakers, and popular media as “big data”. Yet, from our experiences on the Academy of Management Journal editorial team, we believe a great deal of ambiguity and even confusion still prevails around key questions such as: What does big data encompass? Does big data mean the end of theory? In what ways does big data research differ from conventional scientific methods of inquiry in management research? What does it take to publish a big data study in management journals?