To reduce resource consumption and increase operations’ reliability, organisations deploy digital technologies to monitor, control, optimize, and automate existing physical operations (e.g. sensors in factories for efficient production, maintenance, and IoT services). There is no clear understanding of how digital data enable these connections and how this shapes competitive dynamics for organisations with different origins, sizes, and structures.
It is likely that digital data-based competition will differ from "traditional" strategies, and powerful incumbents may have even more power to block initiatives to remain dominant. This project develops an inductive framework to explain how different types of organisations use digital data and how differences shape ecosystem emergence and management. Using the framework, policymakers can set regulations to prevent the build-up of power by a few tech companies (e.g. Google, Amazon).
Based on interviews, observations, and archival materials in two digitalising ecosystems that tackle this twin digital/green transition, this research answers the question: how does the digital data layer of digital-physical offerings allow organisations to enter and traverse industries, and what are the organisational and strategic implications?
This project is funded by the European Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. The programme aims to enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers holding a Ph.D., who wish to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral mobility.