Data Ecosystem Governance: A Conceptual Framework

Data need to be created, collected, stored, exchanged, integrated, and processed among a diverse set of actors and infrastructures to create value. Such reliance on other actors leads to the emergence of data ecosystems. Despite the focus on data ecosystems in the literature, little is known about who governs what data activities and how. Data ecosystem governance aims to ensure the alignment of activities with different goals and strategies of ecosystem actors. We contribute to the understanding of data governance by expanding the conceptual model for data ecosystem governance. The framework draws on an extensive review of data governance and ecosystems. We show governance is multi-layer, multi-actor and multi- dimension which creates complexity and interdependencies. The conceptual framework provides a guide for managers to fully understand and implement data ecosystem governance

Antecedents for sensing and responding to changes: the case of a digital service provider

To cope with changes in the business environment, many studies provide insights into how organizations can sense and respond to changes. While sensing and responding capabilities are complementary to be agile, few studies (if any) have examined antecedents for sensing and responding capabilities separately. This study presents a case study of a service provider that became and remained agile during the health emergency and explores various antecedents supporting organizations to sense and respond to changes separately

Strategists on the Board in a Digital Era

Considering the complexity and dynamics that firms are facing in a digital era, it is no exaggeration to argue that the way boards of directors contribute to strategy needs some new perspectives. In this article, we reconsider some of the commonly used notions and assumptions of board strategizing. We conceptualize a framework for board strategizing by revisiting and providing novel elements to the work introduced by McNulty and Pettigrew in 1999 (Strategists on the board. Organization Studies, 20(1): 47-74). Our framework highlights several timely board practices that have the potential to improve the way boards strategize under conditions of increasing digitalization. Further, the findings suggest that valuable strategic actions and priorities can be made by boards that use and develop dynamic capabilities as they strategize. Implications for theory and practice as well as future research directions are discussed

To Cloud or not to Cloud. Strategic choices and IT governance in the digital transformation of a University

One late evening on 21st March 2015, Francesca \u2013 Head of Research and Teaching office at The University \u2013 ran the meeting and was hoping that the information and insights collected enabled her to make the right decision. She initiated the meeting by telling the story that few days ago on 15th March, during the presentation of a new digital solution for universities by MG company, she realized how different can be the instructors\u2019 practices in managing teaching materials and interacting with students. She gave examples of tools and functions used by University instructors such as personal webpages, blogs, Moodle, Dropbox, Google Drive, iTunes, WordPress, Facebook groups, Blackboard, etc. Francesca knew how important innovation is in a competitive higher education market. Therefore, Francesca has always been supportive on teaching experiments made by instructors. For instance, in 2007, she encouraged the Information Systems (IS) research group at University in adopting Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS) for their IS courses. In 2014, the positive feedback collected from both students and instructors who used Moodle, led Francesca to pilot the system at University level. Simone, a member of the IS group, was in charge of the implementation and received full support from the IT Office. After one year, the new learning platform was available for any instructor interested in experimenting the Moodle functionalities. However, during the last exam session, the learning platform was down for few hours. Not only students were unable to access the teaching materials to prepare for the exams, but also professors were unable to assess students works! \u201cWhy not having one platform to support all our teaching practices? One channel to interact with our students\u201d she said. She asked for inputs and insights from a team of experts before making a decision. Francesca\u2019s idea was to have a single Learning Management System (LMS) supporting more than 60 programs in the four University departments. Now the problem was to select a proper technological solution, fitting with the needs of both students and instructors, and also reducing the risk of downtime. Especially knowing that many instructors will not be happy to standardize their practices, she wondered how to convince them to use the new system

Business model innovation and digital transformation in global management consulting firms

Purpose: This paper contains an exploratory analysis of the business model innovations (BMIs) that management consulting firms (MCFs) undertake to remain competitive during digital transformation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses data from a longitudinal multiple case study of the European practices of major global MCFs to provide an overview of how they reconfigure their business model (BM) to gain competitive advantages. It maps BMIs in MCFs through value creation innovation, value proposition innovation and value capturing innovation. Findings: There is a shift in value proposition from solely giving advice or supporting information technology (IT) implementation to providing end-to-end digital solutions. To materialize value propositions, MCFs acquire new knowledge and digital assets through talent scouting, and mergers and acquisitions (M&As). MCFs rely heavily on complementary knowledge and capabilities of actors within ecosystems; thus, they focus on expanding, creating their ecosystems and adopting platforms' configuration and characteristics. Research limitations/implications: Inductively, the authors reached an analytical generalization through six propositions and a theoretical frame that embeds propositions in the previous literature. Future research should test them across the overall management consulting industry. Practical implications: MCFs are recognized as drivers of innovation and BMIs in most client firms. However, MCFs are rarely analyzed with respect to their BMIs. Understanding how MCFs innovate their business models (BMs) to provide digital transformation (DT) consulting services is relevant for delivering management innovation across industries. Originality/value: This is the first exploratory study on BMI inside global MCFs during DT

Exploring IT investment decisions of SME in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Organizational processes, production, business strategy, value creation and value delivery are undergoing significant change as result of emerging new technologies in industry 4.0 context. This has drawn attention across many countries and not only organizations, but also stakeholders and policy makers as the fourth industrial revolution. While Industry 4.0 has been widely investigated in large enterprises, yet to date, little is known about how SMEs with limited financial resources make strategic decisions in particular about IT investment on diverse emerging technologies. To close this gap, this paper focused on the propensity of SMEs in IT investment in an industry 4.0 context. We analyze the responses of 1889 Italian SMEs to Government policies designed to facilitate SMEs in adopting technologies for Industry 4.0. This study aims to contribute to alignment literature by highlighting the importance of IT investment as strategic decision in Industry 4.0. Moreover, the paper offers a set of practical implications

Collaborative Innovation in Digital Era - A conceptual framework

Digital transformation compels organizations to revisit their business activities. In this article, we focus on collaborative innovation as an approach to sustain competitive advantage in the complex and fast changing environment characterizing the digital transformation process. The contribution of this paper is a conceptual framework focuses on digital transformation in three key areas: organizational boundaries, business process and value creation. And it proposes collaborative innovation as an innovation strategy where organizations combining knowledge, technologies, and other resources across organizational boundaries to innovate in digital era

Inter-Organizational Relationships in Open Innovation - A Case study in Mature Industry

This paper borrows from social network theory insights into the supply network structure in order to understand how companies can gain leverage from supply networks in open innovation (OI). In a rapidly changing environment and with an increasing cost of innovation, companies need to search outside for new knowledge and technology to sustain their competitive advantages. Through the in-depth case study of a leading company in the Home Appliances Industry, this paper describes how a company in mature industry gain leverage from its supply networks in inbound open innovation to enhance knowledge flow. The evidence illustrates that the company has involved both strong and weak supply ties in inbound OI as important source of knowledge and technology to accelerate innovation. In particular, we argue that apart from a supporting effect of strong ties in OI activities, involvement of strong supply ties in OI activities may also stimulate the implementation of OI by suppliers and may result in higher innovative performance. Also forming new interactions with new partners and spanning industry boundaries allows companies to gain access new knowledge from different industrial and technological sectors. More precisely, we highlight the importance of creating trust with weak ties and transparent evaluation process

OPEN INNOVATION WITH SUPPLIERS: THE EFFECTS OF TIE STRENGTHS, RESOURCE VITALITY AND FUTURE BUSINESS

Knowledge distribution forces firms to search outside for new knowledge to sustain their competitive advantages. The purpose of this study is to examine how a firm can manage and govern supply ties in open innovation from a social network perspective. A systematic literature review methodology was adopted and 50 publications were synthesized to draw conclusions about the open innovation with suppliers. Building on SLR, we extend the idea of tie strength and introduce two forms of strong ties; \u201cvital strong ties\u201d and \u201coverembedded strong ties\u201d, and two forms of weak ties; \u201cpotential weak ties\u201d and \u201cinfant weak ties\u201d. The proposed framework suggested that the idea of open innovation is further than connecting to weak ties. Strong ties with vital resources are valuable source of knowledge in open innovation projects. Second, expectation of future business constrains opportunistic behavior of suppliers and affects knowledge flow positively in open innovation process

Data control coordination in cloud-based ecosystems: the GAIA-X ecosystem

Value creation in digital ecosystems entails bottlenecks among actors with heterogeneous interests and expectations. Data control is a critical element of digital strategy to remove bottlenecks and unleash value creation in the ecosystem. In this chapter, we focus on the formative stages of a cloud-based ecosystem to examine how actors coordinate data control activities to co-create value. We develop a conceptual model of data control coordination in cloud-based ecosystems by drawing on the formation of the EU GAIA-X ecosystem. Our model illustrates how data control is regulated and managed either within the firm’s hierarchy or within the ecosystem. It shows that coordination among actors across a cloud-based ecosystem starts by resolving data control bottlenecks in multilateral agreements before engaging in innovative activities that lead to value co-creation. Our model contributes to research on digital strategy by looking at data control coordination as a precursor to generating complementarities between ecosystem actors. This raises important implications for data strategies in digital ecosystems