205 Copyright © 2013, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 14 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1861-9.ch014 Mert Bal Yıldız Technical University, Turkey Yasemin Bal Yıldız Technical University, Turkey Ayşe Demirhan Yıldız Technical University, Turkey Creating Competitive Advantage by Using Data Mining Technique as an Innovative Method for Decision Making Process in Business ABSTRACT Competitive advantage is at the heart of a frm’s performance in today’s challenging and rapidly chang- ing environment. One of the central bases for achieving competitive advantage is the organizational capability to create new knowledge and transfer it across various levels of the organization. Traditional methods of data analysis, based mainly on human dealing directly with the data, simply do not scale to handle with large data sets. This explosive growth in data and databases has generated an urgent need for new techniques and tools that can intelligently and automatically transform the processed data into useful information and knowledge. Consequently, data mining has become a research area with increas- ing importance. Organizations of all sizes have started to develop and deploy data mining technologies to leverage data resources to enhance their decision making capabilities. Business information received from data analysis and data mining is a critical success factor for companies wishing to maximize competitive advantage. In this study, the importance of gaining knowledge for organizations in today’s competitive environment are discussed and data mining method in decision making process is analyzed as an innovative technique for organizations.