Abstract

This research-in-progress paper presents preliminary findings from a 2019 explorative ethnographic field study of a Norwegian platform as a service. The platform enables organizations to integrate data from their different data systems and siloes in a cloud-based hub, which returns meaningful and valuable data combinations that provide organizations with several innovative takes. This study contributes to the information systems (IS) literature on digital business models and digital transformation by presenting in-depth empirical insights into potential barriers for organizations to realize the full potential of the data that organizations have at hand. Some key barriers are revealed to be closely related to IT managers’ ownership and control of data and data systems, as well as resistance to new and different ways of thinking of data; power aspects from external data systems’ suppliers (e.g., SAP); and skepticism by organizations toward a product the organizations do not own, among others. Key characteristics of those who realize the opportunities that reside in their organization’s data and are a key asset to their business include risk-taking persons with a nose for business observing the strategic opportunities that digital data has for their business models.

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