Data Governance in Practice: Lesson from SME-Large Organization Collaboration

Data governance can be defined as a system of decision-making rights for information-related processes, outlining roles, rules, and responsibilities. It plays a critical role in enabling organizations to manage data efficiently. Previous research has focused on data governance practices at the organizational level. Yet, in spite of this valuable work, it is still unclear how data governance unfolds at the inter-organizational level as companies collaborate and interact to create value from data. These collaborations are gaining increasing attention due to their growing prevalence in today’s landscape. In such contexts, partnerships and interactions are central, yet there remains a lack of clear understanding of the dynamics among various actors and how these dynamics influence data governance practices. To address this gap, this study employs a qualitative case study of a service provider specializing in digital platforms for large organizations to examine how interactions among actors shape data governance practices. The findings provide valuable insights into the ways inter-organizational dynamics influence data governance within collaborative ecosystems.