This work centers on the mechanisms by which value is accrued to data, a field that is becoming known as datanomics. The research is mobilized from platform economics, the economics of information, Big Data, communication theory, the study of data as a production factor and an exchangeable service, and the emerging field of information chain failure (a vertical form of market failure). This thesis makes the case that the creation of value from data requires a broader consideration of activities and resources than has been researched previously. Essentially, value creation relies on capitalization of enrichment infrastructure, and recognition of a community of internal and external stakeholders who collaborate around the data. At issue is the fundamental question of how each stakeholder can operate around data to achieve maximum advantage, and how collaboration, not competition, is required to achieve those outcomes.
The empirical case used is of animal (specifically cattle) breeders who periodically collect performance data and then must decide both how much of it to share and how frequently to do so. The emergent model characterizes optimal strategies at firm and industry level. This novel approach provides guidance for industry and policy action. For industry, it identifies optimal data sharing actions and contextual conditions. At the policy level, it identifies and quantifies market failure, and the steps necessary to correct it.
This PhD is presented as a thesis-by-publication. The first two chapters draw from the literatures noted above to derive the ingredients required to create value from data, the attributes of the value creation process and the mechanics of its operation. The first of these chapters was published in an A* agricultural systems journal in 2021. The final three chapters apply this theory at a firm-level, across a market, and into a microeconomy, respectively, and have been through the full revision process at a management journal (A*), information systems journal (A*) and agricultural technology journal (Q1).
The primary author and student has presented his research at three annual Conferences of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, the annual conference of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, and the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. The author won first place in the Economics and Business section of NE’s 3-Minute Thesis competition and has been influential in NE’s business incubation activities that target knowledge management aspects of Agtech adoption.