Data-push innovation beyond serendipity: The case of a digital platform making Earth Observation data fit into multiple use contexts

The potential of data to circulate across organizations and sectors and stimulate innovation in multiple contexts has been largely acknowledged by practitioners and researchers. This has given rise to a specific form of innovation strategy, “data-push innovation”, which consists of stimulating the use of existing data by third-party actors. However, how to manage such a strategy remains challenging. The paper explores this question by examining the longitudinal case study of an actor that has successfully stimulated the use of Earth observation data by multiple actors over the last 40 years. The paper offers several contributions to research in information systems and innovation management. First, the paper shows that data-push innovation can be fostered through the intentional design of a so-called “fit system” allowing data to be used in multiple contexts. Such a fit system can be built as a generic system, following similar “generification” strategies as those supporting platform or software development but with original patterns to adapt to the specificities of data-push innovation. Second, the paper characterizes the types of “boundary resources” needed to support this process. These boundary resources especially have a two-way resourcing function: they help third-party actors contribute to the fit system development, but they also allow the fit system owner to identify the knowledge boundaries preventing data from gaining meaning in new contexts. Third, the paper reveals an intriguing form of localized and nondominant platform leadership, focusing on gaining generative power rather than controlling power over the platform ecosystem.