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Data-Driven Organizations: Review, Conceptual Framework, and Empirical

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Australasian Journal of Information Systems Fischer et al.
2023, Vol 27, Selected Papers from ACIS 2022 Data-Driven Organizations

Data-Driven Organizations: Review, Conceptual

Framework, and Empirical Illustration
Hannes Fischer
TU Dresden, Germany
[email protected]
Martin Wiener
TU Dresden, Germany
Susanne Strahringer
TU Dresden, Germany
Julia Kotlarsky
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Katja Bley
TU Dresden, Germany

Abstract
With companies and other organizations increasingly striving to become (more) data-driven,
there has been growing research interest in the notion of a data-driven organization (DDO).
In existing literature, however, different understandings of such an organization emerged.
The study at hand sets forth to synthesize the fragmented body of research through a review
of existing DDO definitions and implicit understandings of this concept in the information
systems and related literatures. Based on the review results and drawing on the established
concept of the “knowing organization,” our study identifies five core dimensions of a DDO—
namely, data sourcing & sensemaking, data capabilities, data-driven culture, data-driven
decision-making, and data-driven value creation—which we integrate into a conceptual
DDO framework. Most notably, the proposed framework suggests that—like its predecessor,
the knowing organization—a DDO may draw on an outside-in view; however, it may also
draw on an inside-out view, or even combine the two views, thereby setting itself apart from
the knowing organization. To illustrate our conceptual DDO framework and demonstrate its
usefulness, we apply this framework to three empirical examples. Theoretical and practical
contributions as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Keywords: Data-driven organization (DDO), DDO understandings, DDO dimensions,
Knowing organization, Literature review, Conceptual DDO framework, Empirical examples.

1 Introduction
To prepare themselves for the digital future, organizations around the world are increasingly
engaging in large-scale digital transformation initiatives (cf. Fischer et al., 2023). Many of
these initiatives revolve around data (Gartner, 2021), which have been widely acknowledged
as a key driver of economic growth (McKinsey, 2013; WEF, 2021). For example, McAfee &
Brynjolfsson (2012) report a 5% increase in productivity and 6% growth in profitability for
public North American companies driven by data; and Rubin & Rubin (2013) observe higher
stock returns for such companies. Relatedly, according to Thusoo & Sarma (2017), 84% of
executives believe that most to all of their employees should use data to help them perform
their job duties as organizations that act based on data show significant advantages over

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competitors (Berndtsson et al., 2018; Constantiou & Kallinikos, 2015). Among other things,
this is because organizations that are driven by data have been found to operate with
improved processes and innovative data-enabled products and business models (Sivarajah
et al., 2017), and to make better decisions in general (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012; Svensson
et al., 2019). It is in this context that organizations are striving to become a data-driven
organization (DDO; Davenport & Bean, 2018; Hartmann et al., 2016) to benefit from the value
potential embedded in data.
With the growing interest in the concept of a DDO, however, multiple understandings of this
concept 1 have emerged in the academic and practitioner literature. More specifically,
existing DDO understandings appear to vary considerably, ranging from rather simplistic to
more complex. For example, while Schüritz (2017) refers to a DDO as an organization that
simply “uses data and analysis to help drive action” (p. 394), other authors such as Thusoo
& Sarma (2017) include multiple characteristics such as data-driven culture, data-based
decision-making and technological capabilities in their more complex DDO understanding.
These diverse understandings in both the academic and practitioner literature make it
challenging for scholars to further advance the body of knowledge on this emerging
phenomenon. Combined with the steadily increasing number of publications in the
information systems (IS) and related literatures, these conceptual challenges led us to the
conclusion that a systematic review of existing understandings is needed and that an
integrative conceptual DDO framework will help consolidate the state of the art and reveal
the core nature of the DDO phenomenon.
Against this backdrop, our study aims to (1) synthesize different understandings of DDOs in
the literature, and (2) derive a conceptual DDO framework that integrates the identified
understandings. To achieve our research objectives, we employ a two-step process. First, we
follow established guidelines to conduct a systematic literature review of DDO
understandings. Second, based on the insights gained, we draw on the concept of the
‘knowing organization’ (Choo, 1996) to develop a conceptual DDO framework. To this end,
our study is structured as follows: In the next section, we review key concepts related to the
notion of a DDO and introduce our guiding framework. We then detail our methodological
approach, followed by the presentation of our review findings and the resulting conceptual
DDO framework. Subsequently, to illustrate our framework and demonstrate its
applicability and usefulness, we apply it to three empirical examples (two DDOs and one
organization that is arguably not data-driven). Finally, we conclude by discussing the main
contributions of our study, along with its limitations and related directions for future
research.

2 Conceptual Foundations
The notion of a DDO combines the concepts of an ‘organization’ and ‘data’. After reviewing
these two concepts and their interrelationships, we will introduce Choo’s (1996) concept of
the knowing organization, which we will use as the theoretical basis for developing our
conceptual framework of a DDO.

1In this paper, we use the term “DDO understanding” as an umbrella term for both explicit DDO
definitions and (more or less) implicit descriptions of this concept.

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2.1 The Concept of an Organization

Broadly speaking, “organizations are systems of coordinated action among individuals and
groups whose preferences, information, interests or knowledge differ” (March & Simon,
1993, p. 2). In this regard, it has been argued that an organization fulfills two main functions:
division of labor and (re-) integration of efforts (Puranam et al., 2014), which require both
coordination and cooperation, which in turn need (data and) information next to motivation
and trust (Gulati et al., 2005; Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967). In general, the organization concept
can be considered from two complementary perspectives: a system-oriented and a process-
oriented perspective (Hall, 1977).
From a system-oriented perspective, and in line with modern organizational theory, an
organization can be seen as an open system that continuously affects and is affected by its
environment (e.g., Boulding, 1956; Katz & Kahn, 1978). As such, organizations can be
described as “‘sensemaking systems’ which perpetually create and re-create conceptions of
themselves and of all around them" (Johnson & Kruse, 2019, p. 10) and “collect, manage, and
use the information they receive” (West & Turner, 2014, p. 301).
From a process-oriented perspective, theorists such as Weick (1969) consider the noun
‘organization’ itself, with its implications of a static and figured-out concept, to be a “myth”
(p. 88). Rather, he argues, people engage in the process of organizing, defined as “the
resolving of equivocality in an enacted environment by means of interlocked behaviors
embedded in conditionally related process” (Weick, 1969, p. 11). Essential to this process are
the acts of information processing and decision-making, two concepts that Simon (1976) and
Choo (1996) place at the center of their definitions of an organization. Simon’s (1976) notion
of an organization is “the pattern of communications and relations among a group of human
beings, including the processes for making and implementing decisions. This pattern
provides to organization members much of the information and many of the assumptions,
goals, and attitudes that enter into their decisions” (p. 18). Choo presents the concept of an
organization as a combination of both a process-oriented and a system-oriented view. On the
one hand, he builds on Simon’s (1976) process-oriented, decision-centric view of
organizations; on the other hand, he draws on the system-oriented modern organizational
theory, viewing organizations as systems that interact with their environment. Integrating
these two perspectives, he describes his understanding of an organization as a “decision-
making system” (Choo, 1996, p. 331).
In today’s era of digitalization, the design of organizations and division of work is
considerably influenced by emerging technologies such as data analytics that transform
organizational decision-making, coordination and control (Faraj & Leonardi, 2022; Kellogg
et al., 2020; Schwer & Hitz, 2018; Yoo et al., 2012). In this regard, the impact of these
information technologies (IT) goes far beyond aligning IT to business functions (cf. Brown &
Magill, 1994), as they fundamentally reshape business strategies (cf. Bharadwaj et al., 2013;
Morakanyane et al., 2017) and the underlying organizations (Yoo et al., 2012), thereby
redefining their identity and value proposition (Wessel et al., 2021). As a consequence, for
Faraj & Leonardi (2022), IT is an inherent part of today's understanding of an organization.
Building on this contemporary understanding, we develop our conceptual DDO framework.

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2.2 The Concepts of Data and Data-Drivenness

The term data refers to a “representation of facts, concepts or instructions in a formalized
manner, suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing by humans or by
automatic means” (Hicks, 1993, p. 668). In the organizational context, Martin & Powell (1992;
cited in Hinton, 2006) describe data as “the raw material of organizational life; it consists of
disconnected numbers, words, symbols, and syllables relating to the events and processes of
the business” (p. 10). By providing context and meaning to data through human or
automated interpretation and processing, they are transformed into information (Hicks,
1993; Tuomi, 1999), that in turn can be used in management decision-making (Powell &
Martin, 1992; as cited in Hinton, 2006).
Building on this understanding of data, the concept of data-drivenness can be explored.
Etymologically, the term drivenness refers to being propelled, guided, or controlled by
something and is rarely used in isolation. Consequently, “data-drivenness” can be defined
as the property of being propelled, guided, or controlled by data. Originally, the concept of
data-drivenness was mainly applied to individual business functions that are particularly
reliant on data, such as marketing (cf. data-driven marketing; see e.g., Malhotra et al., 1999).
However, as digitalization has progressed, entire value chains and business models have
become centered around data, giving rise to the notion of data-driven business models
(DDBM) (cf. e.g., Wiener et al., 2020) 2. Nowadays, this development has progressed to the
point where entire organizations are propelled, guided, or controlled by data, giving rise to the
notion of DDOs (Thusoo & Sarma, 2017). Arguably, this notion can be seen as a contemporary
version of what Choo (1996) refers to as the “knowing organization” (KO). As such, we build
on Choo’s conceptualization of the KO and use it as a guiding framework.
2.3 Guiding Framework: The Knowing Organization
In his seminal article on the KO, which has been cited extensively in the IS and related
literature, Choo (1996) describes and refines the core functions of a learning organization and
their interplay. Building on Choo’s understanding of an organization as a “decision making
system” (Choo, 1996, p. 331), knowing organizations can be described as organizations with
“the ability to use information to gain a better understanding of their activities and their
environment [and] achieve a competitive advantage by making better decisions and having
clearly defined courses of action” (Parra, 2022, p. 8), where “the creation and use of
information [obtained from the external environment] play a strategic role in determining an
organization’s capacity to grow and adapt” (Choo, 1996, p. 329). According to Choo (1996),
a KO is an organization that effectively integrates the organizational knowing cycle,
consisting of three interrelated organizational functions—namely, sensemaking, knowledge
creating, and decision-making—that build on each other to form an outside-in view of how
organizations absorb and utilize information (Choo, 1996) by taking in signals and
knowledge from the environment and processing these external inputs into internal
knowledge, decisions, and behavioral changes (Choo, 1996) (see Figure 1). The sensemaking
function is responsible for making sense of changes and developments in the organization’s

2 It should be noted that a business model can be centered around data without requiring the
underlying organization to be data-driven, and vice versa. Please refer to section 6 for a more detailed
discussion on the conceptual distinction between a DDO and an organization with a DDBM.

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external environment, by subjectively filtering out relevant information and forming possible
explanations from past experiences (Choo, 1996). An important part of this step is the
organization’s purpose, which helps contextualize information during the interpretation.
The second function of the KO, knowledge creating, focuses on the human-centric exchange of
learning, e.g., through training and the conversion of tacit into explicit knowledge (and vice
versa). Through this exchange of knowledge among between organizational members,
supplemented by external knowledge, an organization generates new capabilities and
innovates. Finally, the decision-making function draws on the generated knowledge, as well
as shared purpose and meaning, to make rational, purposeful decisions. To do so,
organizational decision makers design decision alternatives, adopt a set of evaluation
criteria, and evaluate the alternatives to eventually arrive at decisions that lead to purposeful,
adaptive internal behavior.

Signals from
the environment

Sense-
making

Shared meanings Shared meanings

and purpose and purpose

Knowledge Decision-
Creating Making

External New capabilities Goal-directed

knowledge and innovations adaptive behavior

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the KO (based on Choo, 1996, 2001)

As noted above, we acknowledge that Choo’s (1996) KO framework and its functions are still
relevant to today’s organizations and thus provide a solid foundation for conceptualizing
the notion of a DDO. At the same time, however, we also argue that Choo’s framework needs
to be updated and extended to account for the significant changes brought about in by the
digital age. While Choo’s (1996) KO framework was developed during an era focusing on
creating organizational knowledge (Parra, 2022), today—three decades later—organizational
decision-making is characterized by data and extensive reliance on digital technologies (Faraj
& Leonardi, 2022; Parra, 2022), which should be reflected in the conceptual framework.
Furthermore, the original framework has an exclusive emphasis on internal value creation
through decision making, thereby disregarding the relevance of external value creation. This
suggests that the outside-in focus inherent in Choo’s (1996) framework is too narrow, as
today’s organizations also actively influence their environment in line with the open systems
perspective of modern organizational theory.

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3 Research Methodology
To effectively organize prior literature on DDOs, we followed established guidelines
(Webster & Watson, 2002) and conducted a systematic literature review. Our review
approach showed several similarities to what Paré describes as a theoretical review (Paré et
al., 2015). This particular type of review is often used to “tackle an emerging issue [such as
the DDO phenomenon] that would benefit from the development of new theoretical
foundations” and its primary goal is to “develop a conceptual framework” (Paré et al., 2015,
p. 188). Furthermore, a theoretical review is usually broad in scope and draws on both
conceptual and empirical sources (without quality assessment), which are mainly analyzed
through content analysis or interpretive methods (Paré et al., 2015).
To conduct such a review, we adopted a hermeneutic approach (cf. Boell & Cecez-
Kecmanovic, 2014; Wittgenstein & Anscombe, 1989), in which we continuously transitioned
between search and acquisition of literature on the one hand and analysis and interpretation
of our findings on the other hand. Through this iterative and integrated approach, we were
able to “re-interpret individual publications and their importance within a bigger ‘whole’”
(Boell & Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2014, p. 265) already during the search process, as we broadened
our understanding of the literature.
3.1 Literature Search
For our literature search and acquisition, we defined clear inclusion criteria that guided our
selection of relevant studies. Specifically, only studies concerned with a conceptual
perspective on DDOs (or synonymous terms such as “data-driven company” or “data-driven
enterprise”) were included in our review sample. In addition, we decided, at least initially,
to include only peer-reviewed, academic publications in our sample. To ensure a broad
coverage of potentially relevant literature sources, we followed the four-step search process
recommended by Webster and Watson (2002). Specifically, we used the website Litbasket.io
(Boell & Wang, 2019) to conduct a keyword-based search covering the 51 most prestigious IS
journals (for a list see Appendix A). Moreover, we also searched the proceedings of leading
IS conferences (ICIS, ECIS, AMCIS, PACIS, HICSS, and ACIS). For both searches, we used
the same keywords. Here, we anticipated that existing literature would use a broad range of
different terms to refer to a DDO. Therefore, we iteratively tested and refined our search
string (e.g., by adding synonyms identified in the literature) until we derived our final search
string that included nine possible combinations of the terms “data-driven”, “analytics-
driven”, “data-”, and the terms “organization”, “company”, and “enterprise”: as well as the
term “data-drivenness” itself without any further limitations. This first step led to 42 distinct
publications, of which only four elaborated on their DDO understandings. We then
performed a backward search (step 2), followed by a forward search (step 3) (Webster &
Watson, 2002) using Google Scholar to further supplement our base set of DDO-related
publications. This snowball approach resulted in to 103 and 9 additional studies,
respectively, yielding 10 additional descriptions of DDO understandings.
In a fourth and final step, we conducted a supplementary database search to complement
our review sample and to confirm that no new DDO understandings emerge (Webster &
Watson, 2002). To do this, we searched the AIS eLibrary (aisel.aisnet.org) using the search
string described above. Furthermore, when analyzing our review sample, it became apparent
that practitioner work—such as Patil (2011) and Anderson (2015)—is frequently cited in the
academic literature as well (e.g., in Fabijan et al., 2017; Hupperz et al., 2021). Therefore, we

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decided to extend our search to the practitioner literature, using the Google search engine
(again with the above-described search string). In doing so, we identified an additional 52
publications, covering various adjacent fields and containing nine additional DDO
understandings. Taken together, our four-step search process yielded a total of 206
publications, of which 23 contained an explicit description of a DDO understanding and were
therefore all used as the basis for our analysis. Table 1 provides an overview of the search
process. Additionally, a detailed description of the review sample can be found in Appendix
B.

Search process
Keyword-based Supplementary
search in leading Backward Forward database
Category outlets search search search Total
Total 42 103 9 52 206
Thereof studies
describing 4 6 4 9 23
DDO understandings

Table 1. Search process and resulting number of publications

3.2 Literature Analysis
Already in parallel and closely intertwined with the search process (cf. Boell & Cecez-
Kecmanovic, 2014; Wittgenstein & Anscombe, 1989), we thoroughly examined our review
sample and arrived at our conceptual DDO framework dimensions in two main steps.
First, we used a combination of descriptive coding and open coding to analyze our review
sample. Initially, we captured and documented descriptive metadata such as the literature
type (academic/practitioner), outlet, research focus, and publication date of each publication
(see Appendix C) to grasp the context of each individual DDO understanding. The primary
focus, however, was on the open coding of all DDO understandings to identify specific DDO
characteristics highlighted by them. This was done by two authors in parallel and discussed
iteratively within the authoring team to ensure the validity and reliability of the coding
results. In case of disagreement, the relevant text passages were jointly revisited and
thoroughly discussed until agreement was reached.
Second, we followed what can be described as an abductive process, in which we derived
the dimensions of our conceptual DDO framework through a combination of deductive
concept coding using Choo’s (1996) KO framework as well as inductive coding building on
the open codes identified in step one. In doing so, the emerging DDO characteristics were
either mapped onto the organizational functions described in Choo’s (1996) KO framework
(sensemaking, knowledge creating, and decision-making), or were used to derive new DDO-
specific dimensions. In total, we identified five DDO dimensions, of which three are updated
functions from Choo’s (1996) KO and two are additional dimensions inductively derived
from our data. As a check for completeness, the five DDO dimensions were mapped again
to all 23 reviewed DDO understandings, covering all mentioned characteristics (see
Appendix C).

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4 Results: Towards a Conceptual Framework of DDOs

4.1 DDO Understandings
Our review results reveal that the DDO understandings found in the existing literature vary
considerably in terms of their level of elaboration and richness, ranging from quite simplistic
understandings (based on a single DDO characteristic) to more complex understandings
(referring to multiple characteristics of a DDO).
On the one hand, examples of quite simplistic DDO understandings can be found in
Berndtsson et al. (2020) and Schüritz (2017). Both point to decision-making based on data as
the single distinguishing characteristic of a DDO, which is captured in descriptions such as:
“A data driven company is described as an organization that heavily relies on data to make
decisions and take actions” (Schüritz, 2017, p. 394). Others such as Lee (2017) rely on the sole
characteristic of “having capabilities to leverage big data” (p. 2) when describing their DDO
understanding and an even more high-level understanding is presented by Halper & Stodder
(2017), who tie a DDO to any kind of organizational data usage.
On the other hand, more complex DDO understandings refer to at least two unique
characteristics of a DDO. For example, three studies in our review sample present the
sourcing and processing of data, combined with the goal of using data to gain competitive
advantage, as key DDO characteristics. A corresponding understanding is evident in Fabijan
et al. (2017) who state that “data-driven companies acquire, process, and leverage data in
order to create efficiencies, iterate on and develop new products, and navigate the
competitive landscape” (p. 1). Likewise, Gualo et al. (2021) put particular emphasis on the
importance of the quality of the obtained data and name better service to the organization’s
customer as a DDO characteristic. In a similar vein, Körppen et al. (2021) raise data collection,
processing and evaluation as a key characteristic and combine it with the act of making
decisions based on data to describe their more internally oriented understanding of a DDO.
Going even further, Olszak & Zurada (2019) and Satar (2021) add data capabilities as a
further characteristic to several of the characteristics mentioned, consisting, for example, of
data infrastructure, data tools and data experts (Satar, 2021). Further, studies with even more
elaborate DDO understandings add to the aforementioned characteristics the notion of a
data-driven culture (Grover et al., 2018), requiring a “sustained commitment from leadership
and employees alike” (Kiron, 2017, p. 1) or “collaboration fostering” (Hagen & Hess, 2020, p.
1). Finally, arguably the most complex DDO understandings are presented in Kearny et al.
(2016), Anderson (2015), and Davenport (2001), who make reference to five characteristics,
ranging from data management and data governance to data-driven competitive advantages
to data-based decision-making and a data-driven culture.
Illustrative sample quotes highlighting the characteristics mentioned in the various DDO
understandings are provided in Table 2.
4.2 Underlying DDO Dimensions
Although the DDO understandings of the reviewed studies differ notably, they also share
several commonalities. In particular, five central DDO dimensions—namely, data sourcing &
sensemaking, data capabilities, data-driven culture, data-driven decision-making, and data-driven
value creation—emerged from our analysis as shown in Table 2. For a comprehensive
mapping of the five DDO dimensions onto the 23 DDO understandings identified in our
literature review, see Appendix C.

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DDO dimension
[# of mentions]: Sample quotes highlighting matching characteristics
Short description
Data sourcing & In a data-driven organization, data is collected, processed and evaluated in a targeted
sensemaking [15]: manner and used as the basis for decisions. (Körppen et al., 2021, p. 454; translated
Acquisition of from German)
(external) data and their A data-driven organization acquires, processes, and leverages data in a timely
purposeful fashion (Patil, 2011, p. 3)
interpretation and So, what does it mean to be a data-driven enterprise? It means maximizing the value
integration of your data and treating it as an asset differentiated by its completeness, lineage,
and quality. […] (Hou, 2018, p. 2)
Data capabilities [15]: Data-drivenness [in the context of organizations] is about building tools, abilities,
Abilities of an and, most crucially, a culture that acts on data. (Anderson, 2015, p. 1)
organization to use its
[…] as the [data-driven] organization's data and analytics capabilities mature, they
infrastructure, tools,
can underpin innovative new business models that alter, sometimes radically, power
and talent to
arrangements within the organization. (Kiron, 2017, p. 2)
purposefully manage
[In the context of DDOs, the] dynamic capabilities of organizations that should
data
contribute to creating, extending, protecting and maintaining a unique database are
to be considered a key point (Olszak & Zurada, 2019, p. 168)
Data-driven culture A data-driven organization should possess three things: A culture in which
[12]: Organization-wide everyone buys into the idea of using data to make business decisions; An
belief and value system organizational structure that supports a data-driven culture; Technology that
that fosters the supports a data-driven culture and makes data self-service. (Thusoo & Sarma, 2017,
understanding, p. 43)
management, and Data-driven decision-making and creating a data-driven culture are important
exploitation of data aspects of a DDO. (Svensson & Taghavianfar, 2020, p. 4)
An organization-wide data-driven culture musts to be established [sic] in order to
exploit the full potential of advanced analytics. (Berndtsson et al., 2018, p. 2)
Data-driven decision- A data driven company is described as an organization that heavily relies on data to
making [11]: The act of make decisions and take actions. (Schüritz, 2017, p. 394)
making rational In theory, data-driven organizations can apply data-driven decisions for all types of
decisions based on data analytics (descriptive, predictive, prescriptive), and all types of decisions
instead of intuition (operational, tactical, strategical). (Berndtsson et al., 2020, p. 1)
Data-driven organizations possess a culture of leveraging data-driven decision-
making rather than depending on the intuitions of their managers in business
activities. (Gökalp et al., 2021, p. 2)
Data-driven value Data-driven companies acquire, process, and leverage data in order to create
creation [15]: An efficiencies, iterate on and develop new products, and navigate the competitive
organization’s actions landscape. (Fabijan et al., 2017, p. 1)
with the ambition to […] Data collected from different operational stages can improve an organization’s
create value through performance and create new business opportunities. (Gökalp et al., 2021, p. 2)
data (e.g., increased Data-driven enterprises enjoy advantages over their competitors because of the
efficiency or product insights provided by data management and analytics and could, for instance,
improvements) enhance marketing strategies and planning that involves customer insight. (Kearny
et al., 2016, p. 4606)

Table 2. Derived DDO dimensions and sample quotes

4.3 The DDO as an Update and Extension of the Knowing Organization

The five DDO dimensions presented above form the central cornerstones of our proposed
conceptual DDO framework. Three of these five dimensions (data sourcing & sensemaking, data
capabilities, and data-driven decision-making) build on the focal dimensions of Choo’s (1996)
framework of the KO, whereas two dimensions (data-driven culture and data-driven value

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creation) constitute novel additions. This implies that the DDO concept can be seen as a
update and extension of Choo’s (1996) KO concept, to make it fit with the affordances and
challenges of today’s data-centric digital era. Most notably, with the two added dimensions,
the DDO framework emphasizes the importance of a data-driven culture and introduces the
dimension of (external) data-driven value creation, which acts as the capstone for an
additional inside-out focus, complementing the existing outside-in orientation (see Figure 2).
The distinct interaction of the individual dimensions becomes apparent when considering
the two orientations in detail.
Outside-in view: Our results show that, like the KO, a DDO strives to make sense of its
environment, processes the information obtained, and uses them to drive decision-making,
thereby demonstrating an outside-in focus. Naturally, however, these three dimensions
operate considerably more data-centric. In line with Choo’s (1996) sensemaking function, the
central purpose of the data sourcing & sensemaking dimension is to obtain data, filter them by
their relevance, and harmonize and contextualize them. Next to inherent internal data, the
focus of this dimension lies particularly on data from the external environment, which must
first be actively sourced. Furthermore, due to today’s (overwhelming) amount of big data,
the sourcing & sensemaking dimension additionally entails a data governance dimension to
ensure data quality, regulation, and protection. Closely intertwined with the sourcing &
sensemaking dimension is the dimension of information processing. While Choo (1996)
describes this function as a human-centric knowledge creating process that deals with tacit
knowledge, the concept of the DDO draws on data capabilities (i.e., tools, infrastructure, and
experts) to process the information obtained in order to generate innovation, new
capabilities, and actionable insights. The outside-in orientation of the conceptual DDO
framework concludes with the dimension of data-driven decision-making, which—similarly to
Choo’s (1996) perspective—involves rational decision-making. Contrary to the KO, however,
the DDO not only facilitates those decisions based on harmonized personal interpretations
of incoming signals, but takes into account factual data, providing an even more objective
decision basis. However, to truly benefit from the potentially increased objectivity and
implement the DDO dimensions mentioned, about half of the reviewed DDO
understandings highlight the need for a data-driven culture as an additional dimension,
providing a shared understanding and purpose behind the required efforts.
Inside-out view: According to our analysis, DDOs demonstrate a new, fifth dimension
concerned with (external) data-driven value creation, which is not reflected in Choo’s (1996)
framework of the KO. This outwardly directed dimension presents the capstone of an inside-
out perspective on DDOs, complementing Choo’s (1996) outside-in view by focusing on the
internal workings of the DDO leading to external value creation. The internal dimensions
data-driven culture, data capabilities, and data-driven decision-making interact with the objective
of going beyond internal decision-making and thereby create actual value through data. This
fifth, externally oriented dimension named data-driven value creation draws on new
capabilities and innovations provided by the DDO’s data capabilities as well as goal-directed
adaptive behavior caused by the data-driven decision-making to achieve (external) data-driven
impact.
Our conceptual DDO framework, building on the five emerged dimensions, and
interweaving both an outside-in as well as an inside-out view, is depicted in Figure 2 below.

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Signals from the

environment & Outside-in view Data-driven
organization Impact
Inside-out view
Inner house

Data Data-
Sourcing & driven
Sensemaking Value Creation

Provision of high-
New capabilities
quality data
& innovations
Shared purpose Goal-directed
& understanding Data adaptive behavior
Capabilities

Shared purpose Data-driven

& understanding insights
Data- Shared purpose Data-
driven & understanding driven
Culture
Decision-Making

Figure 2. Conceptual DDO Framework

As becomes apparent from Figure 2, three dimensions—namely, data-driven culture, data

capabilities, and data-driven decision-making—are included in both the outside-in and the
inside-out view of a DDO. This suggests that these three dimensions form the foundation of
a DDO, indicating that they could be considered the core dimensions of such an organization.
In the following, we will refer to this subset of dimensions as the inner house of a DDO.
On this basis, we define a DDO as an organization (1) with a data-driven culture, enabling
and inspiring organizational members on all levels to embrace data as the backbone of their
actions and decisions; (2) with access to data capabilities including tools, talent, and
infrastructure to gain insights from data; and (3) with organizational members consequently
making their decisions based on data-driven insights. Further, depending on its specific
focus, a DDO may also be characterized by a particular emphasis on (4) systematically
acquiring data and purposefully interpreting and integrating these data (outside-in view),
and/or on (5) creating data-driven value (inside-out view).

5 Empirical Illustrations of the Conceptual DDO Framework

To illustrate the general applicability of our conceptual DDO framework and demonstrate
how its five DDO dimensions characterize and help differentiate DDOs, we draw on three
empirical examples. When selecting Pharma, Automotive and Sports as empirical examples,
we deliberately chose diverse organizations from different industries with annual revenues
of more than one billion euros and a global presence to ensure comparability. To collect the
actual case data, we integrated multiple types of sources such as semi-structured interviews
with one top-level key informant each, internal documents provided by the key informants,
and publicly available information, into a case database and coded the data along the five

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DDO dimensions of our conceptual framework. The case study companies as well as our case
study methodology are detailed in Appendix D. Below, we present these three cases using
our conceptual DDO framework.
Pharma, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has transformed itself into a
DDO mainly to improve efficiency and decision-making, with its Head of Digital
Transformation stating, “we want to help patients as fast as possible—therefore we need to
speed up our time to market through smarter decisions.” The organization demonstrates all
three DDO dimensions of the inner house of our conceptual DDO framework to a medium
to high degree with an emphasis on data-driven decision-making. For example, in important
meetings at Pharma, there is a deliberate search for decisions that should be made in a more
data-driven way and the required data is subsequently sourced, processed, and presented in
the form of a dashboard. Regarding the data capabilities that enable this way of working,
Pharma’s entire data infrastructure is designed to have data flow along the value chain and
across divisions, with data analysis tools and necessary upskilling training being provided
to all employees. As the reliability of and adherence to laboratory test results can be a matter
of life and death in this industry, staff are inherently already aware of the value of data and
therefore already cultivate a data-driven culture. This sense of ownership and responsibility
of both data owners and users is further fostered by making the origin and use of data
transparent throughout the whole organization. Centered around this inner house, Pharma
also demonstrates the two additional DDO dimensions data sourcing & sensemaking, and
data-driven value creation to a medium to high degree. Because Pharma is at its core a clinical
research organization, the generation, access, and interpretation of high-quality clinical data
(i.e., data sourcing and sensemaking) is an integral part of its operating model. Also, building
on this operating model, Pharma ultimately creates externally-oriented data-driven value
through more efficient, more precise, and smarter clinical trials, ultimately leading to clinical
solutions being available earlier on the market.
Automotive, the data-driven car manufacturer we studied, primarily demonstrates an
inside-out DDO perspective, building on the inner house of our conceptual DDO framework.
To enable this, Automotive places great emphasis on data quality and availability, with more
than 150 employees being dedicated to improving data quality and developing
comprehensive data portals that make available data more transparent and accessible.
Furthermore, the top management has decided to make all data free of use (i.e., without
licenses/chargebacks to the organizational unit that owns the data) to further foster data
exploration. However, Automotive also demonstrates an inside-out orientation, as it focuses
on internally exploring data use cases which lead to innovative, data-enabled products and
services (e.g., data-driven applications in cars) or even fundamentally new income streams
(e.g., selling traffic data). This focus on data-driven value creation is evidenced by the current
600-800 data use cases whose evaluation, budgeting, and development is managed centrally
through a dedicated use case funnel process. To enable this kind of data-driven value
creation, Automotive’s management equally developed and strengthened all DDO
dimensions of the inner house of our conceptual DDO framework. For example, this is
reflected in the organization’s data capabilities, where data analytics tools and basic data
analytics training are available for tens of thousands of employees. Complementary to this
mandatory training, all staff are regularly presented showcases (i.e., successful, and
particularly impressive or innovative data use cases) that illustrate the value and innovation
potential of data to inspire them to work in a more data-driven way, which could be seen as

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a manifestation of a data-driven culture. According to the Vice President Data

Transformation of Automotive, this data-driven culture on all levels is a cornerstone of their
DDO understanding, as it is the main driver for their employees and managers to make
decisions in a data-driven way.
Sports, a global sports brand, also pursues the goal of becoming a DDO but is currently at a
much earlier stage of its transformation compared to Pharma and Automotive, as it
demonstrates all five DDO dimensions to a low to medium level. Starting with data sourcing
& sensemaking, the organization currently has several non-integrated and inconsistent data
pools, with employees navigating the data landscape through manual data requests via
email. The lack of a single source of truth also inhibits data-driven decision-making, as
conflicting data sets can—intentionally or unintentionally—lead to the adoption of a
misleading decision-making basis. Regarding data-driven value creation, Sports has
identified data use cases which are critical to success (e.g., supply chain optimization) and
started to develop them accordingly. However, these use cases are built on a non-integrated
database and without standardized tools, leading to further incompatibilities and further
fragmentation, according to the Tech Strategy Lead. These factors also undermine the
establishment of a data-driven culture, as employees who have been convinced to work in a
more data-driven way cannot do so due to a lack of data tools and skills as well as a lack of
reliable data itself. In summary, and in consideration of the lower-level demonstration of the
DDO dimensions of the inner house of our conceptual DDO framework, it can therefore be
argued that Sports is not (yet) a data-driven organization. A summary of the current state of
all three empirical examples along the five DDO dimensions can be found in Table 3.
When comparing the three empirical examples along the five dimensions of our conceptual
DDO framework, notable differences across the firms become apparent. All three
organizations demonstrate each DDO dimension to varying degrees, thereby indicating their
focus and the progress of their digital transformation towards a DDO. As presented in Table
2, both Pharma and Automotive strongly demonstrate the inner house dimensions of a DDO
as well as data sourcing & sensemaking and data-driven value creation. However, when
looking at the general orientation of the DDO, a different focus emerges. The top-level
management of Pharma puts particular emphasis on exploiting data to achieve internal
improvements through data-driven decision-making, hence focusing on an outside-in DDO
view. The Automotive top-level manager, on the other hand, primarily points to data
exploration leading to innovative, product- and customer-oriented data use cases, thereby
focusing on an inside-out DDO view. In contrast, Sports—notwithstanding its ambition to
eventually become a DDO—currently demonstrates all five DDO dimensions to a much
lower degree, indicating a generally earlier stage in the digital transformation process
towards a DDO. Figure 3 illustrates the degree to which each of the empirical examples
currently demonstrates the DDO dimensions, thereby highlighting both the different foci as
well as differences in the overall degree to which the dimensions are demonstrated.

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DDO Empirical Example

dimension Pharma Automotive Sports
Data sourcing Cockpit provides overview of Full transparency on available No consistency between
& available data and access data through data portal individual data sources
sensemaking instructions to all employees Data freely available to Highly in-transparent data
Very high data quality due to everyone (no internal licenses/ landscape which is navigated
clinical research standards chargebacks) by employees through manual
Significant investment and >150 people dedicated to data requests via email
manual effort made to integrate continuous data quality Degree of demonstration:
and harmonize data pools enhancement low
Degree of demonstration: medium- Degree of demonstration: medium-
high high
Data Data infrastructure completely Cloud-based, scalable data Data infrastructure currently
capabilities rebuilt to allow integrated data infrastructure consists of incompatible data
flow Data tools freely available for pools
Data tools are provided as all relevant employees No established toolset, analyses
standardized out-of-the-box Basic training on data analytics are mainly run ad-hoc
toolkit and use case identification for Organization is not able to
Both data scientists and clinical >40.000 employees attract and retain talent mainly
staff are upskilled to integrated Degree of demonstration: due to salary and leadership
clinical data scientist role high style
Degree of demonstration: medium- Degree of demonstration:
high low-medium
Data-driven Data usage is made more Dedicated show case space Frontrunners have been
culture transparent to foster sense of where lighthouse use cases are identified and placed in each
ownership and accountability presented to >40.000 employees business unit to act as change
Business unit-overarching to inspire them influencers
workshops where dashboards Focus on mitigating fears of Employees try to act data-
are jointly built and presented more (performance) driven but are hindered by lack
to inspire workforce transparency of data as well as capabilities
Degree of demonstration: medium- Degree of demonstration: medium- Degree of demonstration:
high high low-medium
Data-driven Deliberate search for Importance of data as objective No objective decision basis due
decision- (recurring) decisions in decision basis is conveyed and to multiple, inconsistent, or
making meetings that should be made fostered through data-driven even conflicting data sources
in a more data-driven way culture Data can easily be manipulated
Data dashboards are developed Degree of demonstration: to underpin favorized message
for all important decisions medium-high Degree of demonstration:
Degree of demonstration: low-medium
high
Data-driven Focus on improving existing Focus on innovative data use Monolithic implementation of
value creation processes (e.g., decision- cases (e.g., new products & single use cases for must-win
making) through data services) battles
Use case identification is Dedicated innovation funnel Degree of demonstration:
mainly decision-driven for data use case ideas with low-medium
Deliberate development of central intake, approval, and
cross-divisional use cases to monitoring
foster exchange of data and Currently 600-800 registered
insights data use cases
Degree of demonstration: Degree of demonstration:
medium high

Table 3. Overview of empirical examples (along the conceptual DDO framework)

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Data capabilities

Data sourcing Data-driven

& sensemaking value creation

Data-driven Data-driven
culture decision making

Pharma Automotive Sports

Figure 3. Comparison of three organizations along five DDO dimensions

When comparing the three empirical examples along the five dimensions of our conceptual
DDO framework, notable differences across the firms become apparent. All three
organizations demonstrate each DDO dimension to varying degrees, thereby indicating their
focus and the progress of their digital transformation towards a DDO. As presented in Table
2, both Pharma and Automotive strongly demonstrate the inner house dimensions of a DDO
as well as data sourcing & sensemaking and data-driven value creation. However, when
looking at the general orientation of the DDO, a different focus emerges. The top-level
management of Pharma puts particular emphasis on exploiting data to achieve internal
improvements through data-driven decision-making, hence focusing on an outside-in DDO
view. The Automotive top-level manager, on the other hand, primarily points to data
exploration leading to innovative, product- and customer-oriented data use cases, thereby
focusing on an inside-out DDO view. In contrast, Sports—notwithstanding its ambition to
eventually become a DDO—currently demonstrates all five DDO dimensions to a much
lower degree, indicating a generally earlier stage in the digital transformation process
towards a DDO. Figure 3 illustrates the degree to which each of the empirical examples
currently demonstrates the DDO dimensions, thereby highlighting both the different foci as
well as differences in the overall degree to which the dimensions are demonstrated.

6 Discussion
The DDO concept has gained increasing relevance within IS research during the recent era
of digital transformation, resulting in a variety of DDO definitions that differ considerably
in terms of their underlying DDO characteristics. Therefore, the study at hand aims to (1)

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synthesize the various understandings of DDOs in the existing literature, and (2) derive a
conceptual DDO framework that integrates the identified understandings, thereby updating
and extending Choo’s (1996) concept of the KO to modern organizations in the digital age.
By doing so, this study makes important theoretical contributions to the IS literature and
offers practical implications.
6.1 Theoretical and Practical Contributions
The theoretical contribution of our study consists of one primary contribution accompanied
by three complementary contributions that expand upon it. The main theoretical
contribution of the study at hand is the synthesis of existing DDO knowledge through the
identification of five central DDO dimensions (data sourcing & sensemaking, data capabilities,
data-driven culture, data-driven decision-making, and data-driven value creation) that emerged
from our literature review and the integration of those dimensions in our conceptual DDO
framework.
Relatedly, our DDO conceptualization shows that a DDO may draw on an outside-in view—
similar to its predecessor, the knowing organization—but it may also draw on an inside-out
view or even combine the two views, thereby updating and extending Choo’s (1996)
knowing organization. As three of the five identified DDO dimensions (data capabilities, data-
driven culture, and data-driven decision-making) are shared by all combinations, we propose
these dimensions to be core dimensions, and refer to them as the inner house of a DDO.
Consequentially, our conceptual DDO framework helps identify DDOs, as demonstrated by
our illustrative examples. While Automotive and Pharma demonstrate all three inner house
dimensions to a relatively high degree and can therefore be considered DDOs, Sports is
arguably not a DDO (yet), as it exhibits only lower levels of those three dimensions.
As a second related contribution, the empirical applications of our conceptual DDO
framework suggest that DDOs may have different foci. On the one hand, there are
organizations like Pharma that focus on exploiting data to enhance their decision-making
processes and improve their internal processes using (external) data, thereby drawing on the
outside-in view of the DDO. On the other hand, organizations such as Automotive, which
take an inside-out view of DDO, focus on exploring data with their internal data capabilities,
data-driven culture and data-driven decision-making to create externally-oriented, data-
driven value.
As a third related theoretical contribution, our conceptual DDO framework helps to clarify
the differentiation between a DDO and the related concept “data-driven business model”
(DDBM). Both phenomena exhibit data-driven value creation as a central dimension and it
can be argued that further DDO dimensions contribute to key resources (data sourcing &
sensemaking, data capabilities, and data-driven culture) and activities (data-driven decision-
making) of a DDBM. However, we also argue that several types of DDBMs do not necessarily
exhibit the other four dimensions next to data-driven value creation, nor do they require an
underlying KO. Wiener et al. (2020) distinguish between organizations that (1) use data to
inform strategic decision-making, improve internal operations, or enrich/develop products,
services, and customer experience, (2) sell collected or aggregated data to other data users,
or (3) facilitate data, for example, through infrastructure solutions or consulting services.
While the first type is clearly in the spirit of the reviewed DDO understandings and therefore
constitutes a DDO, we argue that organizations do not necessarily have to be data-driven

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themselves to sell data or facilitate their use. Thus, DDOs and organizations with a DDBM
should not be treated as synonymous.
Finally, as a practical contribution, our DDO framework can be used as a conceptual tool that
may help practitioners concerned with DDOs in several ways. First, it can serve as a target
state for digital transformations. By applying our framework, practitioners can develop a
roadmap for transforming their organization into a DDO or identify gaps in their current
organization. Also, by mapping organizations onto the five core dimensions of our
framework, practitioners can compare and contrast different organizations. This
comparative analysis can provide valuable insights into organization-specific foci—as
demonstrated with Automotive and Pharma—as well as general industry-specific best
practices, and opportunities for cross-industry learning.
6.2 Limitations and Further Research Directions
Regarding limitations and future research directions, we acknowledge that not all publications
in our review sample had an exclusive focus on DDOs. In particular, for publications where
DDOs are not the focus of the study, this could have an influence on the level of elaboration
in the respective descriptions of DDO understandings. However, since half of the four
shortest DDO understandings (based on only one characteristic) in our review sample were
extracted from publications explicitly focused on DDOs, we consider this potential bias to be
acceptable. Secondly, the study at hand presents only a simplified scale to measure the
degree to which organizations demonstrate the respective DDO dimensions. To demonstrate
the applicability of our framework for identifying and comparing illustrative examples, we
believe this pragmatic approach to be appropriate. However, future research could expand
on these dimensions with more refined scales. This operationalization could also open up the
opportunity for configurational studies (e.g., fsQCA; c.f. Ragin, 2008) to examine successful
configurations of DDO dimensions for different foci (e.g., data exploitation vs. data
exploration) and to test our proposition of the inner house dimensions being core dimensions
for a DDO. Finally, our conceptual framework could also help to study the nature of digital
transformation processes of organizations towards a DDO, as our five DDO dimensions
could guide and inform research regarding the different aspects of such a transformation. In
this context, it would be particularly interesting to explore the order in which the dimensions
are addressed in the context of a digital transformation, as addressing all of them
simultaneously does not seem feasible due to the high level of complexity.

7 Conclusion
In conclusion, our study provides an integrated, conceptual framework of the DDO, a
phenomenon that is gaining increasing attention as organizations strive to become more
data-driven. By synthesizing the existing, fragmented body of research, we identified five
DDO dimensions (data sourcing & sensemaking, data capabilities, data-driven culture, data-driven
decision-making, and data-driven value creation) and integrated them into a conceptual DDO
framework. The proposed framework suggests that a DDO can draw on both an outside-in
view or an inside-out view or both, thereby setting it apart from its predecessor, the knowing
organization, which draws exclusively on an outside-in view. Using the DDO framework to
analyze empirical examples, the study at hand demonstrates both the framework’s general
applicability and its practical relevance. For example, our framework can help practitioners
identify and compare DDOs, as well as support them describe the current and target states

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of their organization and thus in derive a roadmap for its digital transformation toward a
DDO. Against this backdrop, we hope that our study results will serve as an analytical tool
for managers, as well as inform and inspire future research on the exciting topic of DDOs.

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Apendices
Appendix A. IS Basket Journal List
Basket Size
Journal Name 2XS XS S M
European Journal of Information Systems x x x x
Information Systems Journal x x x x
Information Systems Research x x x x
Journal of the Association for Information Systems x x x x
Journal of Information Technology x x x x
Journal of Management Information Systems x x x x
Journal of Strategic Information Systems x x x x

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MIS Quarterly x x x x
Decision Support Systems x x x
Information and Management x x x
Information Systems Frontiers x x x
Information and Organization x x x
Communications of the Association for Information Systems x x x
Data Base for Advances in Information Systems x x x
Expert Systems with Applications x x x
Information Society x x x
Communications of the ACM x x
Decision Sciences Journal x x
IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering x x
Information Processing and Management x x
Information Technology and People x x
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies x x
International Journal of Information Management x x
Journal of Information Systems x x
Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce x x
Journal of Systems and Software x x
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology x x
Knowledge-Based Systems x x
Organization Science x x
ACM Transactions on Information Systems x
Australasian Journal of Information Systems x
Business and Information Systems Engineering x
Computer Supported Cooperative Work x
Computers in Human Behavior x
European Journal of Operational Research x
Information Systems and e-Business Management x
Information Systems Management x
INFORMS Journal on Computing x
International Journal of Business Information Systems x
International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems x
International Journal of Information Security x
International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector x
Journal of Computer Information Systems x
Journal of Database Management x
Journal of Enterprise Information Management x
Journal of Global Information Management x
Journal of Global Information Technology Management x
Management Science x
OMEGA - International Journal of Management Science x
Online Information Review x
Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems x

Table A1. IS Basket Overview (cf. Boell & Wang, 2019)

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Appendix B. Review Sample Description

In total, our review sample consists of 23 studies, including six journal articles, seven
conference papers, one book section, and nine practitioner publications of various types (e.g.,
books, magazine articles, and white papers), representing a wide array of disciplines and
perspectives. While 15 studies are published in IS outlets that were the starting point of our
search (e.g., Journal of Management Information Systems, AMCIS Proceedings), our review set
also includes publications from adjacent research fields such as computer science (4) and
management (4) that were identified through the backward and forward searches. This
distribution is in line with the perspective offered by Hagen and Hess (2020), who refer to
DDOs as socio-technical systems, which by their very nature lie at the boundary between
computer science and management and thus within the focus of IS research. In terms of
sectors, our review set (and especially the case studies presented) reveals a wide range of
application areas (e.g., retail, manufacturing, healthcare, finance, construction, technology)
and predominantly (57%) a focus on the required actions and challenges of becoming a data-
driven organization, again confirming the current emergence of DDOs in practice as
described in the introduction. Another indication of the topicality of DDOs can be seen in the
chronological progression of the reviewed publications. As shown in Figure B1, a noticeable
increase in publications can be observed from 2016 onwards, with academic publications
slightly trailing those from practitioners.
Moreover, in terms of the complexity and richness of the extracted DDO understandings, a
wide span can be observed in the length of the descriptions alone, ranging from short one-
sentence definitions (e.g., Schüritz, 2017) to extensive concept maps (e.g., Hupperz et al.,
2021) and detailed checklists (Davenport, 2006).

Academic literature Practitioner literature

6

0
before

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021
2013

Figure B1. Distribution of publications in the sample

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Appendix C. Review Sample and Identified DDO Dimensions

Identified DDO dimensions

Data-driven culture

decision-making
Data sourcing &

value creation
sensemaking

Data-driven

Data-driven
capabilities
Explicit
Literature focus

Data
Source type on DDO
Anderson (2015) Practitioner Yes x x x x x
Berndtsson et al. (2018) Academic Yes x x x x
Berndtsson et al. (2020) Academic Yes x
Davenport et al. (2001) Academic No x x x x x
Davenport (2006) Practitioner No x x x
Fabijan et al. (2017) Academic No x x
Gökalp et al. (2021) Academic No x x x
Gualo et al. (2021) Academic No x x
Grover et al. (2018) Academic Yes x x x x
Hagen & Hess (2020) Academic Yes x x x x
Halper & Stodder (2017) Practitioner Yes x
Hou (2018) Practitioner Yes x x x x
Hupperz et al. (2021) Academic Yes x x x
Kearny et al. (2016) Academic No x x x x x
Kiron (2017) Practitioner No x x x x
Körppen et al. (2021) Practitioner Yes x x
Lee (2017) Practitioner No x
Olszak & Zurada (2019) Academic No x x x
Patil (2011) Practitioner No x x
Satar (2021) Academic Yes x x x
Svensson & Taghavianfar (2020) Academic Yes x x x
Thusoo & Sarma (2017) Practitioner No x x x
Total 15 15 12 11 15

Table C1. Review sample and mapped DDO dimensions

Appendix D. Illustrative Example Research Approach

To empirically illustrate our conceptual DDO framework, we deliberately selected three
organizations of different industries and sizes that are currently undergoing digital
transformations toward a DDO to demonstrate the applicability of our framework across
organizational types. At the same time, we chose a lower boundary of more than ten billion
euros in annual revenue and a global presence to ensure comparability. Table D1 provides
an overview of the industry, number of employees and revenue of the three selected
organizations, as well as the role of the key informant interviewed.

Staff 2021 Revenue 2021

Illustrative example [thousand] [billion EUR] Key informant role
Automotive >100 >100 Vice President Data Transformation
Pharma >100 10-50 Head of Transformation
Sports 50–100 10-50 Tech Strategy Lead

Table D1. Overview of analyzed organizations

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To collect our data, we combined multiple sources. First, we conducted extensive online
research on each company to gather contextual information such as external reports and
evaluations, relevant press coverage and financial statements (including e.g., revenue). We
then identified top-level managers who are responsible for the planning and implementation
of the digital transformation of each company, contacted them via LinkedIn and conducted
a 30-to-60-minute video call with one manager per organization. This interview was
structured by a questionnaire focusing on the general DDO understanding, the digital
transformation motivation and expected outcome, as well as key milestones and challenges
in becoming a DDO. The entire questionnaire is available on request.
To analyze the data obtained, we performed a deductive concept coding of all the data
gathered, using our five DDO dimensions as categories and transferred our findings into a
tabular database organized by DDO dimension and organization. Building on this database,
we performed a thorough within-case analysis for each empirical example, resulting in
detailed, descriptive write-ups that we used to empirically illustrate our conceptual DDO
framework.

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