Challenges in the Emergence of Data Ecosystems

The importance of data as a resource for innovation and value creation is increasing steadily. As a result, organizations must adapt their strategies and develop methods for integrating data into their value creation processes. At the same time, data-driven value is less and less created by one company alone but rather through the sharing of data in so-called data ecosystems. The data ecosystem field is, however, not well understood yet. For example, it is unclear how data ecosystems emerge and evolve further. To address this research gap, this paper focuses on the challenges in the emergence phase of data ecosystems. By conducting a multiple case study of eleven use cases, we find that, among other challenges, building trust between the ecosystem participants is one of the major challenges a data ecosystem has to overcome in its emergence phase