Data platforms allow businesses to sell and exchange data. They are essential for enabling the data economy and AI. A key governance issue is the openness of data platforms. We cannot simply transfer what we know about traditional digital platforms. Data platforms are different: they bring new reasons to (not) open up (e.g. privacy), the openness between platforms becomes essential, and there are new approaches to realize openness (e.g. multi party computation). This presentation is a keynote given at University of Passau (2021). I give an overview of existing literature and a research agenda

1. 1
Governance of data platforms
Rethinking platform openness in the
data economy
Dr ir Mark de Reuver, June 2021

2. 2
From digital platforms…
Digital
De Reuver (2009). Governing mobile service innovation in co-evolving value networks. PhD thesis
De Reuver & Bouwman (2012). Governance mechanisms for mobile service innovation. J Bus Res
De Reuver et al (2015). Collective action for mobile payment platforms. Elec Comm Res Appl

3. 3
…to cyber-physical platforms…
Digital Physical
Nikayin, De Reuver & Itala (2013). Service platform for independent living. Int J Med Inf
De Reuver, Sorensen & Basole (2018). The digital platform: A research agenda. J Inf Tech

4. 4
… generating immense amounts of
data…
• 18 Petabyte per second in 2020 (DOMO
2018)
• Data is the fuel for AI
• Firms only use 10% of their data
(Manyika 2015; Green 2016)
• Difficulty finding and assessing data
Adapted from Agahari 2021

5. 5
Data marketplace platforms
Agahari (2019), adapted from Spiekermann (2019)

6. 6
Data platforms ≠ bilateral data sharing
Bilateral data sharing Data platforms
Purpose Pre-defined, foreseeable Undefined
Data shared
with
Partners, buyers, suppliers
Typically bilateral
Unrelated third parties
Typically multilateral
Governance Direct, trust-based? Automated, contract-
based, smart contracts?
Example Interorganizational systems (IOS) Data marketplaces (e.g.
Caruso, DAO, …)

7. 7
Pre-study: Data platform governance matters
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
Importance of factors for adopting IoT data platform
De Prieelle, De Reuver & Rezaei (2020). The role of ecosystem data governance in
adoption of data platforms. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

8. 8
In this talk
• Data platforms have unique characteristics
• Characteristics challenge understandings of
platform openness
• These challenges bring new research questions
– Digital platform = Extensible codebase to which
complementary modules can be added (Tiwana et al 2010)
– Platform openness = Extent to which platform resources are
available to third parties (West 2003)
– Data platform = Digital resources that enable user groups to
buy, sell, analyse data

9. 9
What’s special about data platforms?
App platforms Data platforms
User groups App developers
App consumers
Data buyers
Data sellers
Solution providers
Industry Smartphone industry Any industry
Object of openness Platform core modules Data (aggregated?) from sellers
Data analytics modules
Market consolidation Winner-takes-all
Dominant design of
business model
No winner in sight
Immense fragmentation
(geographical, industry, data type)
Risks of opening up Loss of control, revenues,
reputation, integrity
Loss of data owner privacy,
confidentiality

10. 10
What’s special about data platforms?
App platforms Data platforms
User groups App developers
App consumers
Data buyers
Data sellers
Solution providers
Industry Smartphone industry Any industry
Object of openness Platform core modules Data (aggregated?) from sellers
Data analytics modules
Market consolidation Winner-takes-all
Dominant design of
business model
No winner in sight
Immense fragmentation
(geographical, industry, data type)
Risks of opening up Loss of control, revenues,
reputation, integrity
Loss of data owner privacy,
confidentiality
RQ1. What are new reasons to (not) open up data platforms?

11. 11
What we know: Why open up platforms
Discipline Why open up
platforms?
Key references
Economics Network
effects
Parker et al
2017
Innovation
management
Third-party
innovation
Baldwin &
Woodard 2009
Information
systems
Generative
innovation
Tilson et al
2010
De Reuver, Sorensen & Basole (2018). The digital platform: A research agenda. J Inf Tech
Drawing from Mosterd et al (in review)

12. 12
What we know: Why open up
platforms
Reasons to open up
• Attract users (Gebregiorgis & Altmann 2015; West 2003)
• Attract complementors (Van Angeren et al 2016)
• Generativity (Tilson et al 2010)
• Boosts innovation (Boudreau 2010; Gawer 2014)
• Attain critical mass (Ondrus et al 2015)
• Long-term evolvability (Tiwana 2013)
Reasons to not open up
• Reduces complementor innovation (Boudreau 2012)
• Control mechanisms are costly (Wareham et al 2014)
• Bad complements harm integrity (Wessel et al 2017)
• Fear of competition (Nikayin et al 2013)
• Competing complementors (Eisenmann et al 2009)
• Forking (Karhu et al 2018), stacking (Pon et al 2014)

13. 13
Open data platforms create new risks
• Data as a strategic asset
– Competitiveness
– Reverse engineering business processes
– Example horticulture industry
• Data can be resold
– Unforeseen usage by third parties
– Arrow’s paradox / What’s it worth?
• Personal data
– Privacy, de-anonymization
– Regulatory compliance (e.g. GDPR)
• When linked with IoT actuators + AI
– Risks for physical safety
– Transparency / unexplainable effects
• And many unknown unknown risks

14. 14
Theory development: Legitimacy
Brandwijk, Van de Poel & De Reuver (in review).

15. 15
Reflexivity in platform openness
design
• Moral sandboxing: uncover value
implications early, in controlled
environment
• Dynamic adjustment and surveillance:
uncover value implications as platforms
are live
De Reuver, Van Wynsberghe, Janssen & Van de Poel (2020). Digital platforms and
responsible innovation. Ethics and Inf Tech

16. 16
What’s special about data platforms?
App platforms Data platforms
User groups App developers
App consumers
Data buyers
Data sellers
Solution providers
Industry Smartphone industry Any industry
Object of openness Platform core modules Data (aggregated?) from sellers
Data analytics modules
Market consolidation Winner-takes-all
Dominant design of
business model
No winner in sight
Immense fragmentation
(geographical, industry, data type)
Risks of opening up Loss of control, revenues,
reputation, integrity
Loss of data owner privacy,
confidentiality
RQ2. What about openness between platforms?

17. 17
High variety of data platforms
• Data marketplaces: facilitate data sales
– Are these platforms or mere matchmakers?
• Data aggregators: buy data and sell as a
product
– Platforms or re-sellers in a value chain?
• Generic AI, ML, analytics
– Third party extensions = extensible platform?
Bergman, Abbas & De Reuver (in review)

18. 18
Market fragmentation
• National / city-level platforms (e.g.
Amdex)
• Industry-specific platforms (e.g. Caruso)
• Data type specific platforms (e.g. IOTA)
• Immense variety of business models
(Van de Ven et al 2021)
• Winner-takes-all? Yet to be spotted
• Multi-homing is costly (Kang et al., 2019)

19. 19
Platform-to-platform openness
• Linkages between platforms
– E.g. EU’s Gaia-X standard for data platform
interoperability
• Meta-platforms
– = federation of heterogeneous platforms
– E.g. IoT platform brokers (Mineraud et al
2016)
– E.g. EU’s `data spaces’
Mosterd, Sobota, Van de Kaa, Ding & De Reuver (in review)
PhD thesis Antragama Abbas (2020-2024) // H2020 TRUSTS

20. 20
What we know on platform-level openness
• Digital platforms build on top of others
– E.g. Android forking: Karhu et al., 2018
• Platforms nest within other platforms
– E.g. Facebook authentication: Tiwana, 2013
• Third parties create bridges to connect platforms
– E.g. smart lighting platforms: Hilbolling et al., 2020
• Technical interoperability
– E.g. payment platforms:
Ondrus et al., 2015
– E.g.: APIs / gateways for data
transfer: Ochs & Riemann 2017
Mosterd, Sobota, Van de Kaa, Ding & De Reuver (in review)

21. 21
Reasons for platform-to-platform-openness
Mosterd, Sobota, Van de Kaa, Ding & De Reuver (in review)

22. 22
What’s special about data platforms?
App platforms Data platforms
User groups App developers
App consumers
Data buyers
Data sellers
Solution providers
Industry Smartphone industry Any industry
Object of openness Platform core modules Data (aggregated?) from sellers
Data analytics modules
Market consolidation Winner-takes-all
Dominant design of
business model
No winner in sight
Immense fragmentation
(geographical, industry, data type)
Risks of opening up Loss of control, revenues,
reputation, integrity
Loss of data owner privacy,
confidentiality
RQ3. Can we find new approaches to platform openness?

23. 23
Platform openness: What we know
• Extent to which third parties can access
generic technological building blocks (West
2003)
• Resource openness
– Give up control over technologies (Boudreau
2010; Karhu, Gustafsson & Lyytinen 2018)
– E.g. open source
• Access openness
– Technologies opened selectively through
interfaces (Boudreau 2010; Karhu et al 2018).
– E.g. Windows APIs
• Tension between openness and control
– E.g. paradox of control (Tilson et al 2010)

24. 24
How to open up data platforms?
• Access to data / data products
– Fully unrestricted versus control mechanisms
– `Data sovereignity’ (cf. IDSA work)
• Access to analytics modules
– App store model to AI (cf. Mucha & Seppala
2020)
• Access to `insights’ / `answers’
– Multiparty computation

25. 25
Data platform openness through MPC
Organizationssharedata
Newknowledgewithoutdisclosureofunderlyingdata
Illustration by Masud Petronia

26. 26
Can MPC break openness / control tension?
• H2020 Safe-DEED: Safe Data-Enabled Economic
Development (with Tobias Fiebig)
• PhD Wirawan Agahari (2019-2023)

27. 27
Research agenda
Research issue Possible research questions
1. Data platforms
create new reasons
to (not) open up
platforms
• What are novel (negative) implications of opening up data
platforms?
• How do societal / external implications of platform
openness (e.g. privacy, safety, democracy) affect platform
openness decisions?
• What is the role of legitimacy in deciding upon data
platform openness?
• How can reflexivity in design feed in negative implications of
opening up data platforms?
2. Platform-to-
platform openness
3. New approaches
to platform
openness

28. 28
Research agenda
Research issue Possible research questions
1. New reasons to
(not) open up
platforms
2. Data platforms
fragmentation calls
for platform-to-
platform openness
• What is platform-to-platform openness? How to distinguish
meta-platforms, forking, platform interoperability?
• What are business models for meta-platforms?
• What are reasons to (not) open up platforms to other
platforms?
• How do meta-platform affect the intentions of data owners
to (not) sell data on data platforms?
3. New approaches
to platform
openness

29. 29
Research agenda
Research issue Possible research questions
1. New reasons to
(not) open up
platforms
2. Platform-to-
platform openness
3. New approaches
to platform
openness
• What resources should be made accessible in data
platforms? Data, data products, analytics modules, …?
• Can privacy-preserving technologies (e.g. MPC) break the
tension between openness and control?

30. 30
Reflection: How did I get to here?
• 2006-2009: From value chain to platform
ecosystem (PhD)
• 2010-2015: Digital platforms in
healthcare, energy, mobility, finance, …
• 2016-2019: Platform openness and IoT //
societal implications of openness
• >2015: Mainstreaming of digital platforms
research; Our 2018-paper
• 2018-now: Influx of data marketplace
projects

31. 31
Summary
• Data platforms: New phenomenon, unique
characteristics, definitely not mainstream
– Privacy, confidentiality as new antecedents for
platform openness?
– New levels of openness: platform-to-platform
– New ways of achieving openness: MPC
• Many thanks to
– Funders: H2020 Safe-DEED; H2020 TRUSTS
– Co-authors: Wirawan Agahari (PhD), Antragama
Abbas (PhD), Hosea Ofe (PostDoc), Anneke
Zuiderwijk (co-PI), Lars Mosterd (MSc), Romy
Bergman (MSc), Montijn van de Ven (MSc)

32. 32
Backup slides

33. 33
What are digital platforms?
• Digital platform = extensible
codebase to which complementary
modules can be added (Tiwana et
al 2010)
• Boundary resources = tools and
regulations that mediate access to
the core of the platform
(Ghazawneh & Henfridsson 2013)
Platform core
Complement
(e.g. app)
Boundary resources
(e.g. API)
Complement

34. 34
What is platform openness?
• Continuum (not binary) (West 2003)
• Object of openness (Karhu et al 2018)
– Resource openness (platform core)
– Access openness (boundary resources)
• Dimensions of openness (Benlian et al
2015)
– Transparency
– Accessibility
• Openness towards (Jacobides et al 2017)
– Other platform providers
– Component providers
– Complementary providers
Platform core
Complement
(e.g. app)
Boundary resources
(e.g. API)
Complement