Business Models for the Open Data Industry: Characterization and Analysis of Emerging Models

Business models for open data have emerged in response to the economic opportunities presented by the increasing availability of open data. However, scholarly efforts providing elaborations, rigorous analysis and comparison of open data models are very limited. This could be partly attributed to the fact that most discussions on open data business models are predominantly in the practice community. This shortcoming has resulted in a growing list of open data business models which, on closer examination, are not clearly delineated and lack clear value orientation. We address this problem by 1) consolidating reported open data business models in both academic and practice literature, 2) describe the models based on a business model framework, and 3) determine open data business models patterns. In addition, we identified the emerging core value disciplines for open data businesses. Our results help to streamline existing useful models, and link them to the overall business strategy through value disciplines.