From Challenges to Solution Pathways for Industrial Data Ecosystems

Many industrial firms know that inter-firm data sharing holds tremendous potential for the creation of new economic value. However, most of them are not yet willing to share data multilaterally for joint value creation. Consequently, they do not participate in so-called data ecosystems. In our study, we address this issue from a socio-technical perspective and apply a two-step qualitative-empirical research design composed of a problem-centered interview study followed by solution-oriented workshops. We have identified and prioritized the perceived challenges and present first solution pathways. We were able to assign respective responsibilities for needed actions to major roles in data ecosystems. Among others, we can show that the core participants, i.e., data owner and data user, and the governance body need to resolve key challenges mostly in a separate but complementary manner to help industrial data ecosystems emerge.