Decoding the data economy: a literature review of its impact on business, society and digital transformation

Purpose - The data economy, emerging from the current hyper-technological landscape, is a global digital ecosystem where data is gathered, organized and exchanged to create economic value. This paper aims to shed light on the interplay of the different topics involved in the data economy, as found in the literature. The study research provides a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities, challenges and implications of the data economy for businesses, governments, individuals and society at large, while investigating its impact on business value creation, knowledge and digital business transformation. Design/methodology/approach - The authors conducted a literature review that generated a conceptual map of the data economy by analyzing a corpus of research papers through a combination of machine learning algorithms, text mining techniques and a qualitative research approach. Findings - The study findings revealed eight topics that collectively represent the essential features of data economy in the current literature, namely (1) Data Security, (2) Technology Enablers, (3) Business Implications, (4) Social Implications, (5) Political Framework, (6) Legal Enablers, (7) Privacy Concerns and (8) Data Marketplace. The study resulting model may help researchers and practitioners to develop the concept of data economy in a structured way and provide a subset of specific areas that require further research exploration. Practical implications - Practically, this paper offers managers and marketers valuable insights to comprehend how to manage the opportunities deriving from a constantly changing competitive arena whose value is today also generated by the data economy. Social implications - Socially, the authors also reveal insights explaining how the data economy features may be exploited to build a better society. Originality/value - This is the first paper exploring the data economy opportunity for business value creation from a critical perspective.