Table 4.

Research agenda for data strategies

Theme	Brief Description	Research Questions
Firm data and privacy strategy
Data strategy	As data become the new currency in the digital era, the firms that can create unique and sought-after data and business intelligence from data-generating technologies wield increasing power. Firms need to maximize value from data by creating balanced, responsible data monetization and data sharing.	• What data valuation models can motivate responsible data monetization and risk minimization? • How do changing work cultures, such as increasing uses of home networks, personal and shared computers, and access to a wide range of systems from outside the office, increase the threat of cyberattacks or data breaches? • Can data sharing be improved via data interoperability?
Privacy innovation	The benefits of data privacy innovations require further investigation. In particular, additional research is needed to identify effective data privacy innovations that might enhance the outcomes of data sharing or data monetization, as well as the challenges to the adoption and implementation of privacy innovations.	• Will firms’ enhanced data privacy practices become the new standard, such that innovating firms need to be even more novel in their privacy practices? • How is the relationship between innovative firms and digital technology providers likely to evolve? • What is the sustainable level of investment in privacy innovation for data harvesters, data informants, data patrons, and data experts? • Do the benefits of privacy innovation justify the costs of adoption and implementation?
Regulatory impact on firm level and ecosystem level
Impact of privacy regulation at firm level	According to structuration theory, structure is both the context and product of actor behavior. In other words, firm responses to privacy regulations can shape the regulatory framework, which in turn constrain or promote subsequent firm actions. The impact of regulations may vary among firms with different characteristics such as data strategy and firmographic variables.	• What are the risks of firms failing to adhere to reactive and proactive privacy requirements? How do differences in regulations moderate these effects? • To what extent do firm responses to regulatory frameworks change the regulation itself, which in turn might trigger a different set of firm actions? • How does the data strategy type moderate the effect of privacy regulation on firm performance? • How do firmographic variables moderate the effect of privacy regulation (stringency) on firm performance?
Impact of privacy regulation at network or ecosystem level	Privacy regulations may be increasingly necessary, but also threaten the benefits that firms and consumers receive from data monetizing and sharing. That is, greater limits clearly may be warranted, but more stringent regulations can create unintended obstacles to value co-creation in a firm’s network or broader ecosystem, especially when there may be fragmentation in legislative regimes.	• What is the impact of regulation stringency on network performance? Does this effect vary with industry settings? • How do policy makers balance consumer privacy protection with industry innovation? • Do the effects of privacy regulation on firms that control flows of data, such as data experts and data patrons, spill over onto firms that are reliant on external data, such as data harvesters? • How do interactions of sector-specific regimes influence ecosystem performance?
Consumer responses to the new digital era
Privacy attitudes	As digital technologies penetrate consumers’ lives and new technologies become powerful means for firms’ data collection and use, it is important to understand consumers’ attitudes toward privacy in response to firm and regulatory actions.	• What are consumers’ attitudes toward firms implementing privacy innovations and firms using a specific data strategy (i.e., data harvesters, informants, patrons, and experts)? • Do new technologies, such as super AI, threaten consumer information, individual, and communication privacy? • How do consumers respond to regulation stringency? • What can be done to make data trade-offs more acceptable for customers?
Privacy protection behavior	In response to emerging threats to privacy, consumers employ various forms of protection, both reactive and proactive. Understanding when these responses are triggered can help firms devise effective strategies.	• What are the outcomes of consumer privacy responses, and how do they translate into financial impacts on firms? • When do consumers activate reactive and proactive responses? • What role do privacy-enhancing technologies play in consumers’ privacy responses?