Discovering Business Models of Data Marketplaces

Abstract

The modern economy relies heavily on data as a resource for advancement and growth. Data marketplaces have gained an increasing amount of attention since they provide possibilities to exchange, trade and access data across organizations. Due to the rapid development of the field, the research on business models of data marketplaces is fragmented. We aimed to address this issue in this article by identifying the dimensions and characteristics of data marketplaces from a business model perspective. Following a rigorous process for taxonomy building, we propose a business model taxonomy for data marketplaces. Using evidence collected from a final sample of twenty data marketplaces, we analyze the frequency of specific characteristics of data marketplaces. In addition, we identify four data marketplace business model archetypes. The findings reveal the impact of the structure of data marketplaces as well as the relevance of anonymity and encryption for identified data marketplace archetypes.