Digital services have the opportunity to transform billion of interactions into a valuable asset that can be leveraged in several ways, unveiling new opportunities in terms of business models. In the digital era, data is often described as the new oil. Just as with oil, the value contained within data is universally recognized. The diffusion of data-driven business models is increasing, giving birth to an apparent paradox. Recent literature points out how the chance to gather a considerable amount and variety of user-generated data may lead to different innovation opportunities, exploiting their value. Nevertheless, users are often unaware of the usage that companies do on their data and more and more concerned about privacy issues. This research aims to explore this apparent paradox aiming to understand if being completely transparent on the usage of data would impact the willingness to use the service. The research is based on a field experiment. The mockups of two digital services have been designed, manipulating the transparency of the business model. Results show how the transparency of the business model does not influence the willingness of users to use the digital service. This means that the willingness to download and use the services presented in the mock-ups is not statistically different in the two scenarios. These results open up interesting space for discussions on business model design.
Do you care how digital platforms use your data? The role of transparency in Data-Driven Business Models
D Trabucchi;T Buganza;
2019-01-01
Abstract
Digital services have the opportunity to transform billion of interactions into a valuable asset that can be leveraged in several ways, unveiling new opportunities in terms of business models. In the digital era, data is often described as the new oil. Just as with oil, the value contained within data is universally recognized. The diffusion of data-driven business models is increasing, giving birth to an apparent paradox. Recent literature points out how the chance to gather a considerable amount and variety of user-generated data may lead to different innovation opportunities, exploiting their value. Nevertheless, users are often unaware of the usage that companies do on their data and more and more concerned about privacy issues. This research aims to explore this apparent paradox aiming to understand if being completely transparent on the usage of data would impact the willingness to use the service. The research is based on a field experiment. The mockups of two digital services have been designed, manipulating the transparency of the business model. Results show how the transparency of the business model does not influence the willingness of users to use the digital service. This means that the willingness to download and use the services presented in the mock-ups is not statistically different in the two scenarios. These results open up interesting space for discussions on business model design.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
