From Ideation to Realization: Essential Steps and Activities for Realizing Data-Driven Business Models

Data have become a key resource for competition in several industries. As a response to this challenge, companies seek to create and realize data-driven business models (DDBMs). Although the ideation of DDBMs has been the subject of research, the realization of DDBMs remains an under-researched area. In this paper, we present a four-step process for guiding the realization of DDBMs. This process is grounded in a two-step literature review of research related to DDBMs and business model realization (BMR). By drawing on the four steps of BMR and six dimensions of DDBMs, the process locates 54 activities for realizing DDBMs. Furthermore, we cluster the activities to develop a consolidated model and demonstrate the application of the process by applying it to three case studies from the literature. The process is a starting point for further research on the realization of DDBMs and helps companies structure their activities for realizing a DDBM.