2017 IEEE 19th Conference on Business Informatics
Business Models for Open Data Ecosystem:
Challenges and Motivations for Entrepreneurship and
Innovation
Fotis Kitsios, Nikolaos Papachristos, Maria Kamariotou
Department of Applied Informatics
University of Macedonia
Thessaloniki, Greece
kitsios@uom.gr
mai1569@uom.edu.gr
tm1367@uom.edu.gr
Abstract— Open data provide many opportunities for businesses,
such as the development of new products and services. A significant
challenge for businesses and governments is the collaboration among
actors who provide data, actors who consume data and actors who
create new services and applications around the data. These actors
synthesize a collaborative environment-called ecosystem. Open data
ecosystems face many obstacles and researchers have focused their
interest in establishing and validating them. The existing knowledge
about the open data ecosystem from the business perspective is
limited. The purpose of this study is to examine the actors of open
data ecosystem and their relationships, their motivations in order to
increase entrepreneurial activities as well as the business model
elements which are required in open data based business. 6
interviews were carried out with actors from open data ecosystem so
as to receive up-to-date information directly from actors and
estimated how the current ecosystem enables new business
opportunities for actors providing data and for actors utilizing data.
The analysis of findings is based on the Business Model Canvas and
results are presented according to the perspective of each actor of
the ecosystem. Findings show that although actors are highly
interested in using open data, there is a need for a new kind of
business ecosystem that makes a win-win condition possible for all
the actors in the open data ecosystem. The interviews disclosed many
motives and benefits of the open data ecosystem. Nevertheless, there
are also barriers that should be carefully examined and resolved.
Keywords—Open data; Business ecosystem; Business model;
Entrepreneurship; Innovation
I. INTRODUCTION
Open data could be identified as the data that should be
available to anyone with a possibility of redistribution in
anyone without any copyright limitations [16]. The openness of
data by businesses can increase their advantage in order to
develop innovative applications. Today new startups use new
technologies in order to create new business models, enhance
profitability and competitiveness [4, 19]. Open data increase
economic performance, innovation and entrepreneurship. Some
benefits which stem from the use of open data include
economic growth, innovation, empowerment as well as new or
improved products and services [15, 34]. Furthermore, open
2378-1971/17 Copyright
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Information
IEEE 398
DOI 10.1109/CBI.2017.51
data support existing business to create opportunities with
visualization that maintains the better utilization of data. Data
are useful for businesses because it could be used as an input in
Information Systems and then businesses proceed then in order
to produce new products and services. Information Technology
provides new tools to businesses in order to support the
development of new products or services which will increase
their profitability. As the strategic planning of these systems
needs information, open data could be a valuable source to
support them [38-42]. Other benefits include the reduction of
costs, as data are free to use and the visualization which helps
the creation of innovative applications using data. Also, data
support the development of applications, which is something
that motivates developers to build open source software for
further distribution. Additionally, as the handling of data is free
and easily available, data support benchmarking as well. In the
future, a growing amount of services will be accommodated
and applications will be developed based on open data [27].
Another advantage is that open data is free and accessible,
which is beneficial for researchers, government and society.
Two categories of open data have been mentioned by
researchers; political and social. Distributing data is not only a
technological issue. It contains organizational models and
research practices, and also it involves institutional, legal and
economic factors [25]. Many scientific journals maintain the
reveal of experimental data therefore data can be reused,
reproduced and confirmed [7]. The increased transparency, the
accountability, the involvement and self-empowerment of
citizens to economic growth and the stimulation of
competitiveness and innovation are some examples of these
advantages [30]. Two major advantages stem from the release
of open data. The first concerns the increased involvement of
citizens in government, the transparency and improvement of
decision-making and the understanding of smarter government
tactics through data. Second, the release of data by startups and
new businesses expands innovative applications [4].
Hackathons gives the ability to increase the growth of
entrepreneurship. Developers have created the application in
hackathons using open data, so they can minimize the cost of
the creation of their applications as organizers supply the
necessary resources to them. Then, as developers have created
their applications they could expand them to a startup because
organizers support them and they can be more easily
networked. Thus, they have all the necessary resources.
Startups collaborate with external partners in order to promote
the new ideas, so participants in hackathons have this
opportunity [33].
Opening data is a big change for a business, nevertheless
the main barriers explain why businesses are not currently
motivated to open their own data. These barriers are the lack of
knowledge on the benefits of opening data, the lack of business
models and the lack of new operation models. Although the
developers of applications could greatly benefit from the
business opportunities of open data, the lack of business
ecosystems and business models has been identified as the
main challenge to data utilization in services and applications
[8-9].
Business models and business architectures are conceptual
tools for characterizing how value is created for customers and
how revenue is achieved. Business models developed to
distribute the possible value of open data are increasingly
available but not well understood. There is a lack of scholarly
papers studying business models for the open data industry
[31-32].
The organizations which work together in a specific
primary technological platform or core business create a
business ecosystem. In each ecosystem, value is not created in
a chain but more in a network of actors. So, the actors in an
ecosystem affect and are influenced by the creation and
delivery of the offerings which each actor provides.
Furthermore, each actor also is responsible for the flows of
information, material, money and affect relationships between
each another. Despite the fact that the existing value chains,
business models and open data communities include building
blocks for the business of open data, the creation of an
ecosystem to maintain both the technical viewpoint and
business perspective of an open data based business is still
required [8-9].
The main purpose of this paper is to address the following
issues; who are the actors of open data ecosystem? Which are
their relationships? What are their motivations in order to
increase entrepreneurial activities? How could the elements of
business model which are required in open data based business
support the activities of these actors? In order to achieve these
goals a case study implemented in order to identify the open
data ecosystem in the city of Thessaloniki. 6 interviews were
carried out with actors from open data ecosystem and the
results lead a business model which presents how value of open
data is created. The analysis of findings discuss the business
model elements which are needed in the open data based
business and the description of how the open data ecosystem in
Thessaloniki should maintain these elements.
The main contribution of this paper is to study the open
data ecosystem from the business viewpoint and to determine
the requirements of the open data ecosystem that could support
different kinds of actors and business in order to produce
services and applications.
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The reminder of the paper has been structured as follows:
The next section describes work related with open data,
ecosystem and business models. Section 3 presents the
methodology which was followed in order to carry out
interviews and analyze data. Then, the findings of interviews
are discussed in next sections. Finally, conclusion and
suggestions for future research conclude the paper.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Literature Review Methodology
Three steps are suggested by the selected methodology of
literature review to manage effective implementation of the
above. These are the search, which includes the selection of
keywords, databases and the selection of criteria for the
selection of articles, the "backward search" and finally the
"forward search." Finally, the analysis and synthesis of the
concepts of articles is following [44].
Databases are Scopus, Web of Science and ABI/INFORM
and searching was done with keywords "open data", "open
linked data", "open government data". Articles are limited to
scientific fields such as "Business Management" and
"Computer Science". Moreover, articles are only in English
and are published in scientific journals or conferences, not in
books [43].
Having searched all databases, all the titles, abstracts and
full texts of the publications were scanned and 61 articles were
consisted of the final sample. Papers that focused on concepts
such as open data ecosystem, business model, benefits and
barriers, innovation and smart cities were selected.
Search was completed when it came to common articles
from all databases and using different combinations of
keywords. So, it was that the critical mass of relevant literature
sources was considered as having been collected. Next sections
present the analysis of relevant articles and the theoretical
framework which is based on these articles.
B. Open Data Principles
The first principle considers completeness which means
that both open data and metadata should be available to users
but data should not include sensitive information. Moreover,
data should be available through open standards, so software
application cannot restrict the access. Data should be available
for free, without usage costs and they could be reused without
the creation of licenses. The third principle refers to primary.
Data should be available in their original form, so users can
check the quality of the information. Then, data should be
available as quickly as possible, even immediately after their
collection, in order the collected information to be updated.
Furthermore, data must be easily accessible. Easy access
requires locating and downloading data without physical
difficulties or electronic barriers. Data can be downloaded
using an Application Programming Interface (API). APIs
create a communication channel between the user, the machine
(access point) and the database which includes data and
facilitates their upload. Also, data should be available in a
language which is understood by machines. The mechanical
readability requires the transformation of data into digital form,
so machines can automatically read information and elaborate
them. Finally, data should be permanent their updated versions
should be indicated [37].
Specifically, licenses are used when data are in RDF format
or in Linked data. According to user, there are different levels
of licenses which are based on different Legal Code Layer.
Many of them are based on Human Readable Layer and others
are based on Machine Readable Layer. These licenses are
intended to protect the issues that may arise when reusing data
concerning the reference to the original creator, data
commercial exploitation and the possibility of data
transformation. There are many kinds of licenses according to
the rights on copying, modification or processing, projection or
retransmission and redistribution or sharing data to users [37].
C. Open Data Benefits and Barriers
The two categories of benefits of open data are the political
and the social. These categories include benefits such as the
increased transparency, accountability, involvement and self-
empowerment of citizens to economic growth and stimulation
of competitiveness and innovation, to name a few [13, 30].
Furthermore, another advantage is the accessibility of
information to wider approach and the permission to induce
innovative use and application [24]. Additionally, Sieber &
Johnson, (2015) [28] categorize benefits in five categories
named; political and social, economic, operational and
technical, which enhance transparency, accountability and civil
participation. Open data supports accountability, increase trust
and urge citizen satisfaction. Citizens can generate better ideas,
think about alternatives and make better decisions.
As open data based business, they can increase economic
growth, innovation, empowerment, participation and the
development of new services. Despite the benefits which are
derived from this, many businesses still do not take advantage
from this use. They deal with challenges about the accessibility
of data or the limited knowledge and resources to make use of
the data. Stakeholders, staff, software providers and
government actors are implicated in the use of open data [17,
34].
In contrast, researchers define obstacles and challenges that
disturb the use of open data. The barriers are classified into ten
categories named; availability and access, findability, usability,
understandability, quality, linking and combining data,
comparability and compatibility, metadata, interaction with the
data provider and opening and uploading [11]. These
categories include obstacles such as legislation, information
quality, and technology, use and participation [12]. Other
barriers concern technical issues, privacy or law [4].
Challenges and problems could come up to the capability of
users and application developers to determine the benefits
related to open data. These challenges and problems stem from
the weaknesses of developers to use data to develop new
business, the lack of technical readiness to use data sources due
to complex data format or interfaces, the difficulty to generate
suitable data sources for application purposes, the insufficient
access of regional data sources for creating applications for
local services, the unclear licensing of open data, legal issues
mentioned to data which are not officially available by decision
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of owner, technical limitations regarding data publishing
platforms, the guarantee of quality and reliability of data, the
lack of availability of local data and usefulness of open data
[10].
Many researchers have focused on obstacles related with
transparency, accountability and privacy. They examined the
challenges in the openness of private data and in the
willingness of private or public organizations to open their
data. They focused on motivation, trust and personal factors
which affect the openness of data [20, 23, 26].
The disposal of data is a major challenge for organizations.
Researchers have discussed the conflict of interest in data
openness. Many organizations are not willing to open data as a
result of many factors such as that the data may negatively
influence some social groups, the fact that there aren’t
copyrights in the reuse of data, or the legal framework is
different in each country and also the cost of data [3, 5, 21].
Users, citizens and businesses should be educated in order
to increase their experience regarding the use of open data and
government should support the use of open data [22, 29]. Also,
as statistical techniques are used for the collection, analysis and
visualization of data, users should be educated to expand the
capabilities of using these techniques [12].
D. Open Data Ecosystem
Literature has identified five roles for the actors who are
involved in the open data ecosystem; data providers, service
providers, application developers, application users and
infrastructure and tool providers (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Actors in open data ecosystem
Data providers are organizations that distribute data to the
other actors of the ecosystem. The types of these data can be
raw data, refined data/information or analyzed information.
Data providers can be classified into two categories according
to their motive. The first one includes organizations that
provide data ‘‘for free’’ without any limitations or with some
licenses that limit disturb the use of data and the second one
involves organizations that do business from selling access to
the data.
Organizations that distribute data without costs are usually
public administrations or other public entities that have a huge
amount of data but no abilities or resources to use them in the relationships with the customers, customers, channels, revenue
appropriate formats of data refinement or to use them in order stream and cost structures. The customer segments building
to develop services. The aim of the distribution of data by these block involves the groups of people or organizations who are
organizations is to improve the national economy, involving customers of a business and it wishes to reach and serve. The
businesses and citizens to exploit the data. Many public value propositions building block includes products and
licenses incur, through which a licensor can provide access and services which create value for a specific customer segment.
copyright authorizations to distribute the data for free. The channels building block includes the ways that a company
communicates with and reaches its customers to deliver a value
Service providers offer services mentioned to data and can proposition. The customer relationships building block
gain revenues from the use of these services. Those represents the different types of relationships which a business
organizations which are not able to perform the data processing develops with specific customers groups. The revenue streams
themselves have two alternatives. Either they can buy the data building block describes the revenues which a business earns
processing services from service providers or they can buy the from each customer group. The key resources building block
processed data directly from data providers. So, the service includes the most significant resources which are necessary to
provider have to identify the needs of customers, produce make a business model work. The key activities building block
relevant data from input data to a particular context or domain describes the most important things a business is obligated to
and represent the produced data in a usable way in order to do to make its business model work. The key partnerships
provide services. Although, a service provider does not building block describes the network of suppliers and partners
essentially offer a complete service for the user he can provide with whom the business collaborate to that make the business
them with a part of a service chain. model work. The cost structure includes all costs incurred to
Application developers collaborate with partners to develop handle a business model [31-32].
innovative applications using open data or integrate their own Table I presents a summary of the key elements of Business
data in their applications. An application idea can be generated Model Canvas.
outside the organization and the users provide developers with
feedback which influences the continuous and iterative TABLE I. KEY ELEMENTS OF BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
development of applications. The open data ecosystem offers
Key Key Value Customer Customer
tools and services to create applications based on open data. Partners Activities Proposition Relationships Segments
Application users consume data by using applications and The The most Products The different The groups of
services which have been developed based on open data. Users network of important and services types of people or
suppliers things a which create relationships organizations
can be categorized as consumers, citizens or enterprise users. A and business is value for a which a who are
consumer is identified as a user who has bought a commercial partners obligated specific business customers of
application from an application store. A citizen can be a user with whom to do to customer develops with a business and
that uses the developed application as one. the make its segment specific it wishes to
business business customers reach and
Infrastructure and tool providers provide the necessary collaborate model groups serve
to that work
tools to other actors of the ecosystem. They are responsible for make the
supporting the ecosystem and receiving revenues from the use business Key Channels
of services and applications of the ecosystem. Marketplace model Resources
The ways that
work
providers offer a marketplace in which applications and data The a company
driver services are available to be bought. Tool providers offer resources communicates
which are with and
tools to create applications, develop applications based on necessary reaches its
different user needs and implement and evaluate the to make a customers to
application. Cloud service providers are responsible for business deliver a
model value
offering the physical facilities for the ecosystem and gain work proposition
revenues from the facilities’ ‘‘rent.’’[8-9].
Cost Structure Revenues
E. Business Models of Data Costs Revenues which a business
earns from each customer group
A business model details how value is created in a business
through the decisions made by executives and the resulting
consequences [11, 31-32]. Authors decided to use the business
elements of the Business Model Canvas as it is a wellknown Other business models include 4 categories named strategic
model and provides a formal template for creating new choices; value creation; value network; and capture value. The
business models [8-9]. It describes how a company offers value Strategic choices block identifies strategies which a business
to one or more segments of customers, the architecture of the formulates to offer a unique product to the customer. This
business and its network of partners for creating and delivering block includes the customer target group, the value proposition,
this value in order to gain revenue streams and increase the capabilities, the pricing policy, the competitors, the
profitability. branding, the mission and the strategy. The value network
building block refers to the network of suppliers and partners
The main elements included in the model are key who make the business model work. The creation of value
partnership, key activities, key resources, value proposition, building block concerns the value created by doing businesses

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in ways that differentiate them from the other businesses or
competitors. The capture value building block identifies the
process of recovering some or all of the value from the
customer [11, 31-32].
Other business models include 4 similar categories which
are customer logic, strategy, resources and network. The
customer logic building block identifies segments of group of
people which a company wishes to reach and serve. The logic
part involves all the activities that support a business to help
and improve the segment. The strategy building block includes
strategies that a business has to formulate to offer a different
product to the customer. Strategic selection increases value to a
strategy. The resources building block includes the most
significant resources which are necessary to make a business
model work. The Network Block describes the network of
suppliers and partners with whom the business collaborate to
that make the business model work [31-32].
It is obvious that the same elements are included in each
kind of business model but they are grouped in a different way.
Successful businesses create value by doing things in different
ways. In order to achieve this, businesses develop different
core competencies, capabilities and positional advantages to
differentiate them from the other businesses or competitors.
This is what is called a differentiation. To conclude, business
viability is aligned both with the value they create and with the
way they capture value and gain revenues [31-32].
III. METHODOLOGY
Previous researchers have studied the role of some actors in
open data ecosystem. Chattapadhyay, (2013) [2] describes the
possible involvement of intermediaries in supply and demand
of open data and their role in preparing the data for the other
actors of the ecosystem. Alongside, he identifies the problems
encountered by these actors throughout the above procedure.
Harrison et al., (2012) [6] use the ecosystem as a tool to create
a research agenda around the phenomenon, identifying three
areas that can create a sustainable open data ecosystem
concerning the needs or skills of actors, the data and
infrastructure that can support, the mechanisms that create
value and the actors who earn it. Zuiderwijk et al., (2014) [35-
36] identify all the different activities that take place within an
open data ecosystem between supply and consumption.
Grouping these activities, they find four perspectives that
create an ecosystem related to the release of data on the web,
the visibility of the data from their users (searching, finding
and monitoring), the processing of data and the evaluation of
data. Furthermore, they examine the measurement of the
quality of data and the interoperability of their infrastructure.
Canares, (2014) [1] concludes the gaps between data providers
and those who consume data. The difficulties are related to the
format of data, the ignorance of the available data sets, the
ability to access and use them as well as the ability to access to
the web and to measure their impact. Lee, (2014) [18]
identifies eleven components that can build and maintain an
ecosystem. These components refer to the selection of
available data, the kind of licenses and privacy, the
measurement of data quality, the accessibility and traceability
of data, the support of organizations which participate in the
opening of the data, the user's involvement in open data and
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economic exploitation and measurement of their impact.
Immonen et al., (2014) [8-9] discuss the open data from the
business viewpoint examining motivations, opportunities and
barriers that relate to the open data based business. They
focused on businesses which act as data/service provider,
application developer, tool provider and application user.
As there is a lack of surveys which study the roles of each
actor in an open data ecosystem, the main purpose of this
research is to address the following issues; who are the actors
of open data ecosystem? What are their relationships? Which
are their motivations in order to increase entrepreneurial
activities? How could the elements of business model which
are required in open data based business support the activities
of these actors? In order to achieve these goals 6 interviews
were carried out with actors from open data ecosystem and the
results concluded to a business model which presents how
value of open data is created [8-9]. The interviews were
conducted in Thessaloniki, Greece. The average duration of
each was 53min. with a range of 45–60min. The interviewees
were selected based on their knowledge about business
viewpoint of the ecosystem in which they act.
The topics of the interview were divided into four main
categories; open data, applications, co-creation and open data
ecosystem. The questions that are included in each category are
presented in Table II.
Table II summarizes the questions of each category.
TABLE II. QUESTIONS OF INTERVIEWS
Categories Questions
Open Data The idea of open data in the perception of
the actors of the open data ecosystem and
their role to entrepreneurship.
The importance of open data in the
competitive advantage of a company or an
organization and the way actors participate
in it.
Barriers in the usage of open data.
Open data licenses.
Customer segmentation around open data
applications.
Applications Characteristics of data and applications.
Tools for using open data.
Copyrights for open data.
Co-creation Idea generation about open data.
Value chain in open data ecosystem.
Cost structure and revenues for each actor.
Contracts between actors.
Open data ecosystem The opinions and the thoughts about the
open data ecosystem and the conditions than
can enable entrepreneurship in it.
Motivations and risks for actors who
participate in the ecosystem.
Co-operation among actors.
The lack of a clear legal framework.
The difficulty of measuring the impact
created by open data.
 The difficult economic exploitation of open
data through business models.
The lack of formal process of publication
open data from organizations / companies
and their willingness to open their data.
Authors try to conduct interviews to all actors of the
ecosystem as they have been presented in Figure 1. But the
open data ecosystem in Thessaloniki is not developed to the
same extent with other regions or countries, so authors could
not carry out interviews to application users. Figure 2 presents
the matching between the actors who have been analyzed based
on literature and the actors interviewed in Thessaloniki’s
ecosystem.
Figure 2. Actors in Thessaloniki’s open data ecosystem
The matching between the two figures could be analyzed as
following; the data provider is the Municipality of
Thessaloniki, the service provider is the Open Knowledge
Foundation, the application providers are the winners in
hackathons and the application users are not identified.
IV. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
A. Open Data Ecosystem
Findings show that the data provider indicated that
Thessaloniki’s open data ecosystem hasn’t been developed yet
“The ecosystem does not provide value because we are not
aware of it yet. It hasn’t been developed yet” (Data provider).
In contrast, service provider concluded that the ecosystem is
mature and provides many opportunities to application
developers “The ecosystem provides tools to developers in
order to develop entrepreneurial activities” (Service provider).
They highlighted that although there are many hackathons in
the city, the entrepreneurial opportunities are limited. The
developers which have participated in hackathons developed
business models which are not commercial. All the actors have
considered the need to increase entrepreneurship through
hackathons, but the efforts which have been done are limited.
They cannot realize the impact of open data in economic
growth but only in social growth.
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B. Customer Segmentation
According to data provider new actors can participate in the
ecosystem. New startups, infrastructure providers and
intermediaries (consultants for application developers and
startups) could increase the entrepreneurship of the ecosystem.
“Businesses and intermediaries should participate in the
ecosystem because they could support new applications to be
launched and developers could start new businesses (startups)”
(Service provider). More actors may be included but they are
difficult to be identified due to the limited awareness and
knowledge of citizens about the benefits of open data. So, it is
important to educate citizens about open data.
C. Customer Relationships
Service provider highlighted the need to create contracts in
order to distribute open data among actors without safety risks,
increasing their entrepreneurial opportunities “It is important to
create contracts which will secure the cooperation among
actors because their cooperation and the funding is not
sustainable” (Service provider). In contrast, data provider
indicated that both the Hellenic and European legal framework
are responsible for the distribution of data and he has to follow
these instructions. So, he disagrees with the development of
contracts. “The legal framework in Greece restricts the
availability of open data. We are obligated to follow the
instructions of this framework and we try to publish data in
suitable formats in order to increase transparency and
entrepreneurship. The contracts are not useful for us because
we do not aim to gain revenues. The contracts would be useful
among individuals in private sector” (Data provider).
D. Communication Channels
Data provider uses the portal of municipality as a means of
communication in order to publish data. This is a typical
solution but it should be improved because it is not clear in the
portal where the data is published from. Similarly, the service
provider published data to OKFN portal. The application
developers use the Google store, the App Store or many
European platforms in order to publish their applications. All
actors believe that the development of new web sites is
necessary in order to provide sets of data and tools which could
be used by application developers.
E. Value Proposition
The data provider publishes data in the following
format;.doc, .xls, .pdf and .jpeg. “We try to increase the quality
of data and to update them. Unfortunately, we provide several
data in static formats” (Data provider). The service provider
develops tools in order to share data among the ecosystem. The
technical characteristics of data are not an obstacle in
entrepreneurship. The barrier is the limited education of users
in their use. Application developers mentioned that their
applications are based on data which are not valuable and they
are not updated. To conclude, all actors agreed that more data
could be available and their format could be improved “The
data which are provided are not in suitable format in order to
process them and they are not updated” (Application
developer).
F. Key Activities & Key Resources universities and and .jpeg launching of infrastructure
networking applications providers
The resources which providers use are related to the laboratories platforms Need for
collection, publishing and conservation of data. Also, they need research
better intermediaries
resources in order to educate the users of data “It is important quality of
institutes data consultants
to inform and educate users about the significance and value of
companies Key Channels
utilizing open data. People and enterprises have already
Resources
understood their value but there is still a need for further Portal of
education in the use of data” (Service provider). Finally, Resources municipality
providers declared that they aim to develop new tools for the regarding:
OKFN portal
statistical analysis of data. Application developers mentioned collection
Google store
that they need more resources when they participate in analysis
hackathons in order to develop their applications and increase App Store
the entrepreneurial opportunities for them “Hackathons do not publication
European
help developers to create new applications because they do not conservatio platform
provide valuable data. Also, technical infrastructure is limited. n of open
data Need for new
Also, there are not businesses and mentors who support channels
developers to expand and launch their applications” Need for
(Application developer). education
to use open
data
G. Key Partners
Cost Structure Revenues
The data provider indicated that cooperation of
Publishing of data Funding of actors from
municipality with universities, laboratories, research institutes governments or enterprises and
and companies is required in order to provide more data to Infrastructure especially through developers
developers and increase the entrepreneurial opportunities for Commercialization of
their applications “We cooperate with universities, research applications
institutes and other public organizations in order to publish
data which could be used by developers in order to develop
their applications. We try to motivate public and private
organizations to open their data when we organize Open data were seen as a competitive advantage.
hackathons” (Data provider). Application developers claimed Furthermore, open data contribute to the generation of new
that the role of service provider could be both supportive and ideas and they support the production of new and innovative
technical because he can support them with the products and services. Information provides an important
commercialization of their applications and provide technical competitive edge. The data providers thought that early
tools to improve them. Unfortunately, despite the organization adopters would gain from the use of open data. Consultants
of many hackathons in the city, businesses do not participate to that market open data and support businesses to understand
help application developers to begin their startups “Businesses how open data can improve their companies are required.
do not provide their data. Organizations in private sector Generally, almost real-time data were seen to provide a
should cooperate with organizations in public sector in order competitive edge. This information is important as it improves
to publish data which will be useful for developers who create safety and enables predictions. Application developers support
new applications” (Application developer). that the rapidly changing information and the refinement of
information could create value for customers. Moreover,
competitive benefits could be generated by providing
H. Cost Structure & Revenue Streams information that competitors do not have, selling data-based
The data provider and service provider mentioned that the knowledge and integrating data. The information can also be
main costs are related with the publishing of data “Revenues provided as a service to the customer. As a result, an
could be found through the funding of actors from governments application user company could be seen as an information
or enterprises and especially through developers” (Service enabler. The products or services help customers to produce
provider). Application developers indicated that the main costs information. An infrastructure provider noticed that the
concern the required infrastructure in order to develop their marketing of the products and services is required to begin in
applications and the main revenues stem from the the early phase. Market research is necessary because it finds
commercialization of their applications. out the potential demand for the product. Predictions, market
The analysis of findings and their optimization according to information and technological possibilities are required
Business Model Canvas are presenting in Table III. because they help in this competition. It is significant to collect
ideas for applications and feedback from the users and support
TABLE III. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS the co-creation of applications among different partners [8-9].
Key Key Value Customer Customer As the data processing and the collection of data increase
Partners Activities Proposition Relationships Segments
the costs, it is not possible to provide data to customers for free
Lack of Need for Format of Lack of New actors: in many cases. Application developers indicated that there
cooperation organizing data: doc, relationships
with: hackathons .xls, .pdf startups could be a small fee for the used data. Thus, the producer will
Need for

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earn money from the data if there is some kind of licenses for
the open data source [8-9].
All businesses recognize many motives and benefits of the
open data ecosystem. It can maintain the generation of ideas
and the optimization of products and provides a new kind of
basic function and new data-based content. Open data can
increase the value for products and the ecosystem supports the
creation of more services or applications that do not compete
against the business's own products. As a result, open data are
seen as a way to enhance competitiveness. The opening of data
enhances the rate of use of data and makes the data available to
developers who develop applications for special groups and for
specific purposes [8-9].
The open data ecosystem contributes to the understanding
of what could or should be done among partners. Furthermore,
it helps to achieve new partners and new customers and
supports a business to serve its customers better [8-9].
The size of the ecosystem is significant. The open data
ecosystem will be small, but the bigger it gets, the easier it will
be to find partners to participate. As the ecosystem is getting
larger then it will be more interesting to application developers
[8-9].
V. CONCLUSIONS
The purpose of this research is to address the following
issues; who are the actors of open data ecosystem? What are
their relationships? Which are their motivations in order to
increase entrepreneurial activities? How could the elements of
business model which are required in open data based business
support the activities of these actors? In order to achieve these
goals a case study implemented in order to identify the open
data ecosystem in the city of Thessaloniki. 6 interviews were
carried out with actors from open data ecosystem and the
results concluded to business model which presents how value
of open data is created. The analysis of findings is based on the
business elements of the Business Model Canvas which is a
wellknown model and provides a template for creating new
business models. Each element of business model has been
presented by the perspective of each actor of the ecosystem.
Many hackathons are organized in the city of Thessaloniki
but they do not promote the entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship
incubators and mentors could participate in these hackathon
and support application developers to further expand and
launch their applications. The purpose of governments is to
help developers to expand their applications using open data by
participating in contests and explicating it through contests. By
organizing these hackathons, governments aim to inform
citizens about the concernment as well as the usage of open
data while they also maintain the expansion of new
applications [14]. Also, more actors have been identified to
participate in the ecosystem in order to increase the
entrepreneurship. Figure 3 presents the new perspective of
Thessaloniki’s ecosystem.
405
Figure 3. New perspective of Thessaloniki’s open data ecosystem
New startups, infrastructure providers and intermediaries
(consultants for application developers and startups) could
increase the entrepreneurship of the ecosystem. They could
provide application developers with tools and mentoring for the
commercialization of their applications. Maybe there are more
actors which could be involved in the ecosystem but the
existing actors cannot identify them due to its immature stage.
The ecosystem creates a value chain because the activities
of each actor influence the other and the whole
entrepreneurship. Actors could create contracts which could
increase their cooperation and the distribution of data among
them without restrictions. The quality of data is low due to
their format which incommodes actors to process them. So,
providers should provide actors with tools in order to use data
and analyze them. The cooperation with other organizations,
institutes and businesses will support this effort. According to
Immonen et al., (2014) [8-9] raw data, refined information,
knowledge, rapidly changing information, predictions and
market information are required. Also, data processing,
analysis, and integration services are necessary. Furthermore,
optimizing algorithms are necessary for the analysis of open
data. Findings from previous researches show that the
reliability of data and data sources are significant. Free data are
often considered to have low quality. In addition, the
permanency of free data sources is claimed uncertain. A way of
securing the existence and quality of open data sources is
through the development of contracts.
Finally, the business models which have been developed by
application developers do not focus on the commercialization
of their applications and the increase of revenues. They focus
only on the social value of data. This finding indicates the need
of mentors and businesses to participate in the ecosystem in
order to help them to expand their applications and maximize
the economic growth. By improving the services and by
bringing new content and ideas, open data not only expand the
possibilities of new business but also help maintain the current
ones better [8-9].
A limitation of this study stems from the fact that the
survey was conducted in one open data ecosystem which is not
mature. But the interviews helped to determine the roles of the
actors in the ecosystem. Nevertheless, there are still many
challenges and risks to be considered in the development of the
open data ecosystem and the increase of entrepreneurship.
According to findings of interviews the interest in open data
based business is great. Thus the ecosystem could provide
opportunities for the actors and the applications around open
data. So, further research is required in order to determine the
barriers and to empower profitable business for the actors of
the ecosystem.
What has to be ensured before a business start using open
data is their quality and their permanency. Companies would
be willing to pay for (data quality and permanency) these to
ensure the permanency of their own business only if they are
an important part of business. Thus, new versions of contracts
that guarantee the permanency of the business of service
developers are needed. These could also act as stimulus for the
data providers not only to maintain the quality of the data but
also to make better version of them.
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