Data governance and the success of data-driven corporates

Data-driven companies promise bett er decisions, higher process effi ciency, and new value creati on through technology adaptati on. In practi ce, however, these expectati ons oft en fail due to a lack of organizati onal anchoring, unclear responsibiliti es, and inadequate data processes. Data governance is considered a key lever for making data reliably usable as a strategic resource – yet its mechanisms of acti on and success eff ects have so far only been conceptualized and empirically proven to a limited extent. This dissertati on examines the contributi on of data governance to the success of data-inspired companies and combines three perspecti ves: (1) a theoreti – cally grounded conceptualizati on of data governance as a bundle of structural, procedural, and relati onal control mechanisms; (2) the operati onalizati on of the construct in measurable dimensions and indicators in order to capture data governance in a comparable way; and (3) an empirical analysis of the eff ects on key performance indicators of data-driven corporate management. The results provide both a scienti fi c contributi on to the clarifi cati on and measurability of the governance construct and evidence-based implicati ons for the design of eff ecti ve governance arrangements in companies.