Establishing and governing data ecosystems at the crossroads of centralization and decentralization

Abstract Data ecosystems are increasingly central to organizational strategy as they promise to democratize data sharing and enhance sustainability through collaborative models. Grounded in theories of decentralized governance, we examine how these ecosystems evolve from a conceptual decentralized framework to a more centralized operational reality as they mature. Employing an exploratory case study of four data ecosystems, based on 25 interviews and archival data, we investigate the transition within data ecosystems from decentralized emergence to the governance trade-offs necessitated by their expansion and increased complexity. Our findings depict a spectrum of governance adaptations: while some ecosystems develop formal structures that lean towards centralization to facilitate scaling, others maintain their foundational decentralized approach through self-regulation and technology-driven solutions. Our results contribute to the theoretical understanding of the dynamic governance within data ecosystems, revealing the processual nuances of balancing decentralization with operational centralization. This has implications for practitioners who must design flexible governance mechanisms capable of navigating between decentralized ideals and the centralizing demands of ecosystem growth and complexity.