Creating value through data collaboratives

Abstract

Driven by the technological capabilities that ICTs offer, data enable new ways to generate value for both society and the parties that own or offer the data. This article looks at the idea of data collaboratives as a form of cross-sector partnership to exchange and integrate data and data use to generate public value. The concept thereby bridges data-driven value creation and collaboration, both current themes in the field. To understand how data collaboratives can add value in a public governance context, we exploratively studied the qualitative longitudinal case of an infomobility platform. We investigated the ability of a data collaborative to produce results while facing significant challenges and tensions between the goals of parties, each having the conflicting objectives of simultaneously retaining control whilst allowing for generativity. Taken together, the literature and case study findings help us to understand the emergence and viability of data collaboratives. Although limited by this study's explorative nature, we find that conditions such as prior history of collaboration and supportive rules of the game are key to the emergence of collaboration. Positive feedback between trust and the collaboration process can institutionalise the collaborative, which helps it survive if conditions change for the worse.

The role of public agencies in blockchain consortia: Learning from the Cardossier

“…This trust is particularly important with such a hyped and little-understood new technology as blockchains. This observation is in line with reports from traditional data collaboratives (Klievink et al 2018). In this case we can shed more light on what exactly is meant by trust here: It is institutional trust (Auinger &Riedl 2018) that is transferred to a platform.…”

“…Government agencies may engage in those platforms just to improve operational efficiencies. Or they engage with private organizations in 'data collaboratives' (Klievink et al 2018;Verhulst & Sangokoya 2015) or 'data driven social partnerships' (Susha et al 2018) to jointly create value, typically in a collaborative innovation addressing a societal challenge. Or they invest in shared platforms to transform the government 'outside-in' (Klievink et al 2016).…”

“…Or they invest in shared platforms to transform the government 'outside-in' (Klievink et al 2016). In all cases there are differences of interests and tensions between participating organizations, and therefore there is a need for a network governance (Klievink et al 2018). Decision rights and rules are needed to steer the whole platform while leaving sufficient autonomy to the actors to create value for their own purposes.…”

“…This can lead to very mundane benefits, such as less burdensome reporting (Klievink et al 2016), joint supply chain management (Klievink et al 2016), or even joint innovation (Klievink et al 2018). It is particularly important to incentivize the data providers (Susha et al 2018).…”

“…On the other hand, public agencies have to guarantee public interests and are a substantial provider of data. This triple role as neutral actor, guarantor of public interest, and data provider frequently gives public agencies a leading role in collaboratives (Klievink et al 2018). Thus, there is ample literature on opportunities and challenges in private public partnerships where partners team up to create physical infrastructures.…”