Exploring Data Monetization in Established Organizations: a Dynamic Capability Approach

The exponential growth of data, together with the increasing importance of analytics in a wide range of contexts, has given rise to data monetization, a phenomenon in which data and data-based offerings are traded for monetary value. Data monetization is relevant for established organizations since they often generate significant amounts of data which provides them with many opportunities for added revenue streams. Previous research shows that incumbents are falling short in harnessing this potential either because of the lack of knowledge of data-based business models or insufficient resources and capabilities. There is a paucity of research on how incumbents could develop such capabilities to successfully sell data and data-based offerings. To fill this gap, we conducted a multiple case study to explore what kind of capabilities are required by established organizations to successfully sell data. The paper contributes to the evolving discourse on data monetization by providing a new understanding of the required capabilities for selling data from the dynamic capability perspective.