From Access to Orchestration: The Role of Data Commons in Digital Innovation

Digital innovation increasingly relies on shared data environments that promote collaboration, experimentation, and co-creation of novel solutions. Data commons have emerged within digital ecosystems, enabling stakeholders to pool, access, and recombine data across organizational boundaries. However, despite the growing interest, we know little about how data commons facilitate digital innovation by building on shared data. Existing research often emphasizes factors such as trust, governance, or regulation, but ignores the actors and their innovation practices within data commons. This study employs an exploratory research design to investigate how exactly data commons facilitate digital innovation. We focus on the actors, practices, and sociotechnical configurations that arise within data commons and identify key mechanisms related to data that contribute to digital innovation outcomes. This enhances our understanding of data commons as enablers of digital innovation, highlights the critical role of data, and offers insights for organizations seeking to leverage shared data resources.