Design Choices for Data Governance in Platform Ecosystems: A Contingency Model

TL;DR

This paper develops a contingency model for data governance in platform ecosystems, considering various contextual factors to guide effective control and decision rights sharing among platform users.

Contribution

It introduces a novel contingency model tailored for platform ecosystems, addressing the gap in existing enterprise-focused governance frameworks.

Findings

The model identifies key contingency factors affecting governance design.

Case study validates the model's practical applicability.

Guidelines for strengthening governance based on specific contingencies.

Abstract

As platform ecosystems are growing by platform users' data, the importance of data governance has been highlighted. In particular, how to share control and decision rights with platform users are regarded as significant design issues since the role of them is increasing. Platform context should be considered when designing data governance in platform ecosystems (i.e. centralized/decentralized governance). However, there is limited research on this issue. Existing models focus on characteristics for enterprises. This results in limited support for platform ecosystems where there are different types of business context such as open strategies or platform maturity. This paper develops a contingency model for platform ecosystems including distinctive contingency factors. The study then discusses which data governance factors should be carefully considered and strengthened for each contingency in order to succeed in governance and to win market. A case study is performed to validate our model and to show its practical implications.