Understanding current data practices in regional Danish SME’s: Data interplay with organization, leadership and decision-making

The objective of this project is to provide insights into the mechanisms and barriers related to the internalization of data in organizational and decision-making contexts. The aim is to identify and delimit a future practice based, empiric research project within the SMEs and identify the ontology for further studies. It will provide a sound basis for an interventional and collaborative study involving practitioners and companies, by providing insights into the organizational, governance, compliance issues of transitioning into data-drivenness for the resource constrained SMEs, that do not necessarily have the organizational capacity,
competences and knowledge to transition to a higher data maturity level to begin with.

Research Question:

How can data practices in SMEs in Central Denmark Region be characterized?
What characterizes the attitudes towards data quality, compliance and data governance in
top management, middle management and operations?

This is a pilot project aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the current situation regarding data practices in a selection of Danish Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME’s), mainly in Central Denmark Region. SME’s are lagging in the transition toward becoming data driven. Existing research suggests that this challenge is not solely due to limited technological understanding, but rather a combination of:

• insufficient data governance and data quality
• lack of analytical capabilities
• weak organizational anchoring of data practices
• limited resources to develop and maintain these capabilities

However, research does not explain the underlying causes behind this. There is a lack of deeper understanding of what is at stake in Danish SME’s when the transformation toward increased data maturity and data driven decision-making fails to materialize, as well as how data and data practices are internalized within organizations. Existing data maturity models are primarily developed in the context of larger organizations and are often based on linear and normative assumptions about development processes. This limits their applicability in SME contexts, where development is often more fragmented, practice-oriented, and
resource-dependent.

The objective of this project is to provide insights into the mechanisms and barriers related to the internalization of data in organizational and decision-making contexts. The aim is to identify and delimit a future practice based, empiric research project within the SMEs and identify the ontology for further studies. It will provide a sound basis for an interventional and collaborative study involving practitioners and companies, by providing insights into the organizational, governance, compliance issues of transitioning into data-drivenness for the resource constrained SMEs, that do not necessarily have the organizational capacity,
competences and knowledge to transition to a higher data maturity level to begin with.

The project will investigate and generate insights into:

• When data becomes meaningful for decision-makers in SMEs, and when it creates
  value for the company’s business-critical functions.
• An understanding of the mechanisms at play in companies that struggle to develop
  truly data-driven decision-making foundations.
• An understanding of contextual variations and situated practices that may influence
  the mechanisms involved in the internalization of data within companies.
• Knowledge of which organizational roles are most valuable for SMEs on their journey
  toward becoming more data-driven.

Research Question:

How can data practices in SMEs in Central Denmark Region be characterized?
What characterizes the attitudes towards data quality, compliance and data governance in
top management, middle management and operations?

• Is there strong data sponsorship?
• What factors and mechanisms can be identified in organizational interaction with data?
• How can data culture and sensemaking be characterized across the organization and on an
  individual level?
• How is the situated use of the systemic data setup?
• What are the obstacles for the SMEs to become data driven, and are they internal or external
  factors?

Research design:

The study is explorative and based on qualitative multiple case study, which will collect data through ethnographic methods and interviews. Data will be collected based on a stratified selection of cases, tentatively 5-7 cases. We do not claim representativity but strive to cover a spectrum of data maturity. Student involvement and learning objectives are attained at a high level in the research process, by heavily involvement of students in internships. The internship perspective can bring valuable insights into the SME’s since the interns are not yet deeply embedded in organizational practices and culture, and therefore will be able to maintain an outside observers perspective, but simultaneously they bring the view of a data professional with a deeper insight into the organization than the research team. In that respect they take the role as “participant as observers” (Saunders et.al. 2023, 395-6). The interns will be duly instructed in their role in the research design, ethnographic methods and provided with the necessary tools.
Since we are interested in both the intentions and the actions of top management and key roles in data processes of the participating SMEs, which is a subjective perspective, we apply a phenomenological paradigm. Since we are also explorative and aim at collecting data to data saturation, we are applying a hermeneutic paradigm in our methodic approach. The data will be collected through field observations (primarily interns), relevant documental records and semi-structured interviews with:
1. Top management
2. Data managers, CIO, or other key roles and decision makers in data processes
3. Key employees within middle management and operations
4. Interns from Data Analysis Studies, Dania Academy

The pilot project will not be delimited to SME’s within a certain industry or trade or other categories, since a part of the objective of this pilot is to maintain an open mind and let the data guide us towards the best empiric framework for the future research project. However, we aim to cover companies in the full range of data maturity.

The project aims to contribute with:
• Empirical insights into data practices in danish SMEs
• A critique of the concept of data maturity in an SME context
• A foundation for a following action research project aimed at identifying opportunities
for data teams in SMEs
• Framing of research objectives and scope of future project, as well as identifying
relevant partners and external funding
• A foundation for academic outputs of future project eligible for high impact factor
journals