Paper Number
ECIS2026-2299
Paper Type
CRP
Abstract
Data ecosystems promise value creation by enabling actors to share and use data across organizational boundaries. Yet many struggle, as actors withdraw engagement, undermining collaboration in the ecosystem. Prior research has predominantly examined how actors engage in data activities, while treating disengagement as a discrete event eroding ecosystem value creation. We challenge this view by characterizing disengagement as a multifaceted, data-embedded process, through which ecosystem value creation is continuously reconfigured. Drawing on a five-year case study of a national data ecosystem involving 37 hospitals, we identify four specific disengagement processes – pre-emptive, peripheral, isolative, and substitutive disengagement. Contrary to dominant as-sumptions, we find that disengagement can also facilitate rather than just erode value creation. Our study advances IS research by theorizing disengagement as a constitutive element of data eco-system evolution. Data ecosystems endure not only through continuous engagement, but through the interplay between engagement and disengagement.
Recommended Citation
Nienstedt, Jonas; Greve, Maike; Kolbe, Lutz M.; and Trenz, Manuel, "The Ambivalent Role Of Actor Disengagement For Value Creation In Data Ecosystems" (2026). ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 13.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/datasc_isresearch/datasc_isresearch/13
The Ambivalent Role Of Actor Disengagement For Value Creation In Data Ecosystems
Data ecosystems promise value creation by enabling actors to share and use data across organizational boundaries. Yet many struggle, as actors withdraw engagement, undermining collaboration in the ecosystem. Prior research has predominantly examined how actors engage in data activities, while treating disengagement as a discrete event eroding ecosystem value creation. We challenge this view by characterizing disengagement as a multifaceted, data-embedded process, through which ecosystem value creation is continuously reconfigured. Drawing on a five-year case study of a national data ecosystem involving 37 hospitals, we identify four specific disengagement processes – pre-emptive, peripheral, isolative, and substitutive disengagement. Contrary to dominant as-sumptions, we find that disengagement can also facilitate rather than just erode value creation. Our study advances IS research by theorizing disengagement as a constitutive element of data eco-system evolution. Data ecosystems endure not only through continuous engagement, but through the interplay between engagement and disengagement.
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