Title: Your purpose or mine? Perspectives on data in innovation ecosystems

Authors: Magnus Andersson; Ludvig Lindlöf

Addresses: Department of Mobility and Systems, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Lindholmspiren 3A, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden ' Department of Mobility and Systems, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Lindholmspiren 3A, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden; School of Business, Innovation and Sustainability, Halmstad University, SE-301 18 Halmstad, Sweden

Abstract: Innovation in ecosystems becomes increasingly attractive for incumbents as the technical complexity increases and complementarities play an increasingly important role for global competition. Digital platforms are becoming one of the primary means to that end, where incumbents can gain scale effects and reap the benefits of the creative crowd while maintaining ownership of the core product. But a lion's share of these platforms hinges on the accessibility of data, and the view of the value of this data differs among actors in the system. This paper accounts for a case study of two type actors in an innovation ecosystem: the core actor (OEM) and the peripheral actor (third party service provider). From interviews with representatives of these actors, we find that their perspectives on the data and its usefulness outside its intended context differ. We label the perspectives purposive and multi-contextual; we formulate their descriptions and outline managerial implications. We argue that these differing perspectives are at the crux of establishing innovation capabilities in ecosystems based on digital platforms.

Keywords: innovation ecosystems; data multi-contextuality; digital innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2023.128804

International Journal of Technology Management, 2023 Vol.91 No.3/4, pp.219 - 238

Received: 01 Jul 2022
Accepted: 11 Jul 2022
Published online: 06 Feb 2023 *

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