Business opportunities

Introduction

  • This part of the Colife playbook helps you to recognize the business potential of data and its value co-creation opportunities within a collaborative asset management setting.
  • A practical framework for business model design guides you through relevant questions and key design choices at different stages of data-enabled business development.
  • The framework is built in two layers, forming a continuum from organizational readiness to ecosystem level key design choices
Figure 1: Business model design framework showing a progression from organizational readiness to ecosystem-level value creation

How to work with the tool

  • Two-level logic: from inside out: The tool progresses from organizational readiness to ecosystem-level value creation as a continuous process
    • Build a strong foundation within the organization Understand your data, value creation logic, resources, and risks before engaging in broader collaboration
    • Identify and resolve critical uncertainties Unclear areas at the organizational level guide development and determine readiness to move forward
    • Expand the analysis to ecosystem-level dynamics Examine data sharing, value flows, roles, governance, and collaboration rules within the network
    • Align internal readiness with external collaboration Sustainable data-driven business emerges when organizational capabilities and ecosystem structures support each other

Organizational level

  • Is your company ready for developing business within a collaborative asset management setting?
    • Know your data, recognize the value creation logic, find the needed resources and ponder the possible risks and conflicts
  • The first layer of the framework guides you through a set of questions that your company needs to solve before targeting towards ecosystem level value co-creation.
  • In this first phase, you will assess your firm’s status through question sets under each of the four dimensions. This assessment reveals the overall readiness level for each theme and provides recommendations for progressing toward a data-driven business in a collaborative setting.
Figure 2: Organizational-level readiness assessment framework for evaluating data-driven business opportunities

Reflect on Your Data-driven Business Opportunity

Figure 3: Reflection prompts for assessing a data-driven business opportunity and planning next steps

Knowing your data - What data matters, what value it creates

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Data Value
Where does data create real value for us?
Data Assets
What data do we control or access?
Data Exchange
Can sharing our data create value for others?
Data Needs
What data do we need from whom? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Knowing your data - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on improving how your firm recognizes and leverages its data assets.
Figure 4: Guidance diagram for assessing data value, data assets, data exchange, and data needs, adopted from Xu et al. (2024)

Value Creation Logic - What problem we solve, for whom, with whom

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Data-related Problem
What problem do we want to, or could we solve?
Customer
Who is the customer of our data or data-based offering?
Offering
What does our product or service help the customer achieve?
Co-creation
With whom is the value created? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Value Creation Logic - status overview and guidance for progression

Focus on improving the clarity of your firm’s value creation logic.

Figure 5: Guidance diagram for clarifying value creation logic, customer problem, offering, and co-creation, adapted from Manninen, Laukkanen and Huiskonen (2023)

Resource Needs - What resources we have and what we need from whom

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Owned Resources
What resources do we have that others need for value creation?
Missing Resources
What resources do we need, and from whom? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Resource needs - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on strengthening the resources and capabilities needed to deliver your offering.
Figure 6: Guidance diagram for identifying owned resources, missing resources, and capability gaps, adopted from Teece (2007)

Risks & conflicts - Where do risks and conflicts arise and how to manage

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Data Risks
What are the risks of sharing data for us?
Conflicts of interest
What conflicts and with whom could arise if we share our data?
Trade-offs
What value may be sacrificed or destroyed if we share data?
Conflict management
How will the risks of data sharing and conflicts be managed? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Risks and conflicts - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on improving how risks, trade-offs, and conflicts are addressed.
Figure 7: Guidance diagram for identifying data risks, conflicts of interest, trade-offs, and conflict management, adopted from Springer et al. (2025) and Tura, Kutvonen and Ritala (2018)

Ecosystem level

  • Reflect back to your organizational level results:
    • What are your strengths?
    • What are the biggest challenges?
    • What are the most promising aspects?
    • -> Be ready to transfer your organizational level results to ecosystem level discussion
  • The second layer of the framework guides you through a set of questions that your ecosystem needs to solve before targeting towards data-driven value co-creation.
  • In this second phase, you will assess your ecosystem’s status through question sets under each of the five dimensions. This assessment reveals the overall readiness level for each theme and provides recommendations for progressing toward ecosystem level value co-creation.
Figure 8: Ecosystem-level readiness assessment framework for evaluating technology, value positioning, governance, risks, and learning

Reflect on Your Readiness towards Ecosystem Level Value Co-creation

Figure 9: Reflection prompts for assessing readiness for ecosystem-level value co-creation

Technology design & data sharing - What data can be shared, combined, and used in a sound way?

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Data Interoperability
How can our data be combined and exchanged with our partners for joint use?
Data Usability
How should data be designed to be usable by both us and our partners?
Ethics & Legality
What ethical and legal boundaries apply to data sharing? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Technology design & data sharing - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on improving how your firm designs, integrates and shares data assets for joint use in the ecosystem
Figure 10: Guidance diagram for technology design and data sharing across an ecosystem, adopted from Jacobides, Cennamo and Gawer (2018), Teece (2007), and Xu et al. (2024)

Value creation logic & market positioning - What value is created, for whom, and how it is shared and captured?

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Value Flows
What types of value flows exist across the ecosystem, and how does data support it?
Value Beneficiaries
Who benefits from the ecosystem, and with whom is value created?
Value Capture & Share
How is value captured and shared fairly among participants? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Value creation logic & market positioning - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on improving the clarity of your firm’s value creation logic and market positioning considerations in the ecosystem.
Figure 11: Guidance diagram for ecosystem value creation logic and market positioning, adapted from Adner and Kapoor (2010), Dormeier et al. (2024), and Manninen, Laukkanen and Huiskonen (2023)

Ecosystem orchestration & governance - Who governs and how?

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Roles & Commitment
Who plays which role, what do they contribute, and how is commitment ensured?
Leadership & Beneficiaries
Who leads the ecosystem and who makes which decisions?
Ownership
Who owns the platform and who owns the data?
Ecosystem Rules
What rules govern participation and how much autonomy do actors have? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Ecosystem orchestration & governance - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on improving the recognition and capability of ecosystem governance.
Figure 12: Guidance diagram for ecosystem orchestration, roles, ownership, decision rights, and governance rules, adapted from Jacobides, Cennamo and Gawer (2018), Teece (2007), and Tura, Kutvonen and Ritala (2018)

Risk & compliance management - Where do tensions arise and how to manage?

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Goal Misalignment
Do stakeholder goals or interests conflict, and how?
Value Contradiction
How might long-term and short-term value contradict?
Conflict Management
How can tensions and conflicts between ecosystem actors be managed? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Risks & compliance management - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on strengthening how tensions (e.g., goal misalignment, value contradiction) in the ecosystem are addressed.
Figure 13: Guidance diagram for managing ecosystem risks, compliance issues, tensions, and conflicts, adapted from Hahn et al. (2014) and Manninen, Laukkanen and Huiskonen (2023)

Learning & evaluation - How does the ecosystem evolve?

Use the table below to assess how clear your current understanding is for each question. Click one status per row to mark the current level of clarity.

Question Clear Partially clear Unclear
Adaptation
How can the ecosystem business model align with the firm’s long‑term goals?
Scaling
When should a new partner join, and what value would they add? 
<span class="assessment-score-label">Overall score</span>
<strong>Not started</strong>

No selections yet. Click a status for each question to record your assessment.

Learning & evaluation - status overview and guidance for progression

  • Focus on improving the clarity of ecosystem evolvement.
Figure 14: Guidance diagram for learning, adaptation, and evaluation in ecosystem evolution, adapted from Adner and Kapoor (2010), Bocken et al. (2016), and Teece (2007)

Continue exploring

References

Adner, R. and Kapoor, R. (2010) “Value creation in innovation ecosystems: How the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations,” Strategic Management Journal, 31(3), pp. 306–333. doi:10.1002/smj.821.
Bocken, N.M.P. et al. (2016) “Product design and business model strategies for a circular economy,” Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 33(5), pp. 308–320. doi:10.1080/21681015.2016.1172124.
Dormeier, C. et al. (2024) “Review and framework for the engineering of Business Models for Sustainability: A System of Systems perspective,” Sustainable Production and Consumption, 51, pp. 1–22. doi:10.1016/j.spc.2024.08.030.
Hahn, T. et al. (2014) “Cognitive Frames in Corporate Sustainability: Managerial Sensemaking with Paradoxical and Business Case Frames,” Academy of Management Review, 39(4), pp. 463–487. doi:10.5465/amr.2012.0341.
Jacobides, M.G., Cennamo, C. and Gawer, A. (2018) “Towards a theory of ecosystems,” Strategic Management Journal, 39(8), pp. 2255–2276. doi:10.1002/smj.2904.
Manninen, K., Laukkanen, M. and Huiskonen, J. (2023) “Framework for sustainable value creation: A synthesis of fragmented sustainable business model literature,” Management Research Review, 47(1), pp. 99–122. doi:10.1108/MRR-03-2022-0177.
Springer, V. et al. (2025) “Platform design and governance in industrial markets: Charting the meta-organizational logic,” Research Policy, 54(6), p. 105236. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2025.105236.
Teece, D.J. (2007) “Explicating dynamic capabilities: The nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance,” Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), pp. 1319–1350. doi:10.1002/smj.640.
Tura, N., Kutvonen, A. and Ritala, P. (2018) “Platform design framework: Conceptualisation and application,” Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 30(8), pp. 881–894. doi:10.1080/09537325.2017.1390220.
Xu, D. et al. (2024) “Time to reassess data value: The many faces of data in organizations,” The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 33(4), p. 101863. doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2024.101863.