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Cited by 95Big Data Technologies and ApplicationsBig Data and Business IntelligenceInformation Systems Theories and Implementation

The Making of Data Commodities: Data Analytics as an Embedded Process

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Aaltonen, Aleksi, Alaimo, Cristina, Kallinikos, Jannis·2021·Journal of Management Information Systems
DOI 10.1080/07421222.2021.1912928
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Abstract

This paper studies the process by which data are generated, managed, and assembled into tradable objects we call data commodities. We link the making of such objects to the open and editable nature of digital data and to the emerging big data industry in which they are diffused items of exchange, repurposing, and aggregation. We empirically investigate the making of data commodities in the context of an innovative telecommunications operator, analyzing its efforts to produce advertising audiences by repurposing data from the network infrastructure. The analysis unpacks the processes by which data are repurposed and aggregated into novel data-based objects that acquire organizational and industry relevance through carefully maintained metrics and practices of data management and interpretation. Building from our findings, we develop a process theory that explains the transformations data undergo on their way to becoming commodities and shows how these transformations are related to organizational practices and to the editable, portable, and recontextualizable attributes of data. The theory complements the standard picture of data encountered in data science and analytics, and renews and extends the promise of a constructivist Information Systems (IS) research into the age of datafication. The results provide practitioners, regulators included, vital insights concerning data management practices that produce commodities from data.

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  • Data can be continuously processed and adapted to new contexts without diminishing as they are editable, portable, and recontextualizable.

    “Data can be continuously processed and adapted to new contexts without diminishing as they are editable, portable, and recontextualizable (Aaltonen et al., 2021).”

    From What role do data network effects play for multihoming complements? An empirical analysis of platform complementors’ strategies for consumer value creation (2025) · cites this paper as Aaltonen et al., 2021

    The Literature Review describes data as editable, portable, and recontextualizable, and Becoming a Data Commodity describes their iterative transformation and repurposing. But the paper does not establish that this happens without diminishing them; that section says data can gain and lose properties, while The Production of Data Tokens notes that editability can lead to loss of relevance. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 96 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Alaimo, C.; and Kallinikos, J. Objects, metrics and practices: An inquiry into programmatic advertising. In, U. Schultze, M. Aanestad, M. Mähring, C. Østerlund, and K. Riemer (eds.), Living with Monsters? Social Implications of Algorithmic Phenomena, Hybrid Agency, and the Performativity of Technology, IFIP 8.2 International Federation for Information Processing, IS&O, IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 543, Cham: Springer, 2018, pp. 110-126.
  2. Barnes, B.E.; and Thomson, L.M. Power to the people (meter): Audience measurement technology and media specialization. In, J.S. Ettema, and D.C. Whitney (eds.), Audiencemaking: How the Media Create the Audience. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 1994, pp. 75-94.
  3. Goes, P.B. Big data and IS research. MIS Quarterly, 38, 3 (2014), iii-viii.
  4. Jarvenpaa, S.L.; and Markus, M.L. Data perspective in digital platforms: Three tales of genetic platforms. In, 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Hawaii, USA, 2018, pp. 4574-4583.

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Authors
Aaltonen, A., Alaimo, C., & Kallinikos, J.
Affiliations
  • Temple University (US)
  • Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (IT)
Corresponding author
Aaltonen, Aleksi
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Management Information Systems
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2021-04-03
Volume
38
Issue
2
Pages
401-429
ISSN
  • 0742-1222 (ISSN-L)
  • 1557-928X
DOI
10.1080/07421222.2021.1912928
OpenAlex
W3177315891
Cited by
95
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 2
FWCI
10.45
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Management Information Systems (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
  • London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • IRIS - Institutional Research Information System (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Big Data Technologies and Applications
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Big Data and Business Intelligence
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
Keywords
data analytics, data commodification, data reuse, data aggregation, data management practices, big data industry, telecommunications companies, advertising audiences, datafication, process theory, data as a resource, data portability

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