UC Berkeley

How do companies creating new technologies featuring new forms of personal data respond to the radical uncertainty of designing data ecosystems and accompanying business models with that sensitive data?

This dissertation answers this question with an empirical, inductive, multiple case comparison of the development of pioneering fitness technologies by Suunto, Garmin, and Adidas. Cases draw on interviews with key product team members who created these technologies and related public artifacts.

Teams responded to this uncertainty in different ways, leading to varying data ecosystem designs that created value in varying ways. Evidence strongly supports that teams' responses are primarily explained by their interpretation of the relative importance of user needs, followed by their interpretations of the relative importance of information economics concepts and their own expertise, and lastly regulations regarding the collection and use of personal data.

These findings pose implications for the creation of future technologies featuring new forms of personal data. Teams' responses will evolve as user needs evolve, and will offer insights into the dynamics and terms of teams' social license for their technologies. New regulations may impact how these ecosystem designs create value.