Why not one big database? Principles for data ownership

Alstyne, Marshall Van; Brynjolfsson, Erik; Madnick, Stuart E.

doi:10.1016/0167-9236(94)00042-4

Cited by 64 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…He also found that centralized coordination typically implies that centralized asset ownership will be optimal. Alstyne, Brynjolfsson and Madnick (1995) use the same framework to derive principles for data ownership. In this article and in our earlier work (Bakos and Nault 1992) we use the theory of incomplete contracts to study the relationship between the ownership structure of an electronic network and the incentives to invest in network-specific assets.…”

Section: It and Organizational Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Ownership and Investment in Electronic Networks

Bakos

Nault

1997

Information Systems Research

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We employ the theory of incomplete contracts to examine the relationship between ownership and investment in electronic networks such as the Internet and interorganizational information systems. Electronic networks represent an institutional structure that has resulted from the introduction of information technology in industrial and consumer markets. Ownership of electronic networks is important because it affects the level of network-specific investments, which in turn determine the profitability and in some cases the viability of these networks. In our analysis we define an electronic network as a set of participants and a portfolio of assets. The salient concept in this perspective is the degree to which network participants are indispensable in making network assets productive. We derive three main results: First, if one or more assets are essential to all network participants, then all the assets should be owned together. Second, participants that are indispensable to an asset essential to all participants should own all network assets. Third and most important, in the absence of an indispensable participant, and as long as the cooperation of at least two participants is necessary to create value, sole ownership is never the best form of ownership for an electronic network. This latter result implies that as the leading network participants become more dispensable, we should see an evolution towards forms of joint ownership.

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Section: It and Organizational Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Ownership and Investment in Electronic Networks

Bakos

Nault

1997

Information Systems Research

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“…Information is an intangible asset that provides benefit to its owner. In the context of information systems, the right to control is the ability to access, create and standardize the data as well as determine access privileges for others (Van Alstyne et al 1995). It is useful to note that this right and its associated privileges accrue to the owners regardless of the location of such information.…”

Section: Ownership and Option Value Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ownership plays a critical role in the success of information systems (Van Alstyne et al 1995). By ensuring the right to control resources, ownership influences decisions about resource use.…”

Section: Ownership and Option Value Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brynjolfsson (1994) extends this analysis by applying the theory of incomplete contracts to 'information assets' to understand the 'mechanism by which information technology can be expected to affect the organization of economic activity'. Van Alstyne et al (1995) apply the incomplete contracts theory to model the optimal distribution of database control that maximizes database value.…”

Section: Ownership and Option Value Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The uncertainty relating to the specific nature of the information that the firm will need makes the collection and management of such information uncontractible (Grossman and Hart 1986;Hart and Moore 1990). Hence, this lends itself to the application of the incomplete contracts theory in order to better understand the ownership and incentive structure for this intangible information asset (Brynjolfsson 1994;Van Alstyne, Brynjolfsson and Madnick 1995). This paper seeks to integrate an options based framework with an incomplete contracts theory to address the following questions:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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To Standardize Enterprise Data or Not? An Economic Analysis of Flexibility versus Control

2005

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This paper addresses the tension between benefits of centralized data control against the benefits of decentralized control at the level of the business unit. Centralized data control provides the benefit of uniform standards whereas business unit data control grants flexibility to react to rapidly changing environments. Many data standardization efforts fail because they do not fully take into account the value of flexibility and ownership incentives. We use a real options based framework and the theory of incomplete contracts to derive propositions about the optimal level of data standardization across the enterprise. Applications of the propositions are illustrated with case vignettes. The paper makes two main contributions. First, the approach defines formally how incentive structures influence ownership of the option value or value of flexibility, which is an intangible information asset. Second the derived propositions would help senior management to more precisely consider aligning incentives in data standardization exercises.

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Legal Requirement Elicitation, Analysis and Specification for a Data Transparency System

Janssen

Kathmann

2020

Business Information Systems

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Why not one big database? Principles for data ownership

Cited by 64 publications

References 20 publications

Ownership and Investment in Electronic Networks

Ownership and Investment in Electronic Networks

To Standardize Enterprise Data or Not? An Economic Analysis of Flexibility versus Control

Legal Requirement Elicitation, Analysis and Specification for a Data Transparency System

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