Sense-Making Exercise Questions

Please note that this is a challenging exercise that is meant to improve your analytical thinking skills.
We do not expect perfect answers, but we expect a well-thought-out answer to every question. Take
this exercise as a challenge!

We categorized the questions according to their difficulty level. Please note that this categorization is
subjective. Depending on your background, some questions might seem easier for you than for
others.

Legend: E = Easier challenge, M = Moderate challenge, D = More difficult challenge

Tips
1. To find an element more easily, search for the icon, its container and sub-containers from the
Ecosystem Governance Compass slide set first! Does the element describe the governance,
technology, business, or legal & regulatory aspects of the ecosystem?
2. You can see the descriptions and properties by clicking on the objects on the HTML page. The
graph documentation will be opened on the down corner of the page.
 Questions
1. E. In this context, we define digital innovation ecosystems as “a loosely coupled set of
autonomous actors (people and organizations who interact without hierarchical fiat) involved
in the development and implementation of innovations enabled by digital technologies”
(Wang, 2021, p. 397).

Do you think the modeled ecosystem can be considered as a digital innovation ecosystem?
Why? Based on the model, give at least five examples of incentives that innovation
ecosystem actors are motivated by when joining an innovation ecosystem. Justify your
answer in a short and concise manner.

Yes, the modeled ecosystem qualifies as a digital innovation ecosystem because it involves
autonomous actors collaborating on digital technology-enabled innovations. Actors are
motivated to join by incentives such as access to resources, knowledge sharing,
collaborative opportunities, market access, and network effects, which drive innovation
and collaboration within the ecosystem.

Ashfaq

2. E. Based on the Technology graph, what do you think is the key asset (=resource) that
facilitates innovations in this ecosystem? Why did you come to this conclusion? Justify your
answer.

In my opinion the single most important asset is cloud data storage, that stores all the
business-critical data, as it provides all the intel necessary for innovation. The collected
data from customer and information of the business can be used to further innovate and
enhance the business on hand, while rest of the assets enable and support the business
itself.

Paavo

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3. E. Go through the model and please answer the following questions shortly:
a. What are the key roles in the ecosystem?
b. What kind of data is stored in this ecosystem?
c. How do the Contracted Service End-Users (Role) benefit from being part of the
ecosystem? (Difficulty: moderate)

a) All central/parent roles in the model as if one is missing the ecosystem doesn´t
work - Customer, Investor, Strategic Partner, Service Controller, Developer.
b) Raw data (HR data, accounting and finance), Cloud data (customer feedback,
metadata, processed information, user and user profile data), and external data
such as industrial data or market trend data.
c) Contracted Service End-Users benefit by getting access to industry insights through
the data and/or the data-related services.

Firas

4. E. Based on the governance aspect, how does the data deletion process happen in the
system? Describe who can add a deletion request and who has the right to delete the data
from the system.

Removing of data from the system needs to be done by a strategic partner or service
controller. All roles can make a deletion request, but strategic partner and service
controller are the only roles with data removal rights, therefore it is up to these two roles
to assess whether data can be deleted without corrupting the functionality of the system.

Paavo

5. M. From the governance perspective, who is responsible for leading and managing the
ecosystem? Describe concisely what kind of activities both leadership and management
responsibilities include.

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Service controller role is responsible of leading the ecosystem by enabling the functionality
and leading the development. Strategic partner has the management responsibility as the
roles key responsibilities include business development activities. On the other hand, also
service controller has management responsibilities that focuses more on the day-to-day
operations management.

Paavo

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6. E. Based on the business aspects, what cost factors do Customers (Role) have when they join
the ecosystem? What are the customers’ benefits from joining the ecosystem?

Customers pay for access to the data, data services, additional consultation fees and a
potential data consultancy fee. However, it is relevant to note that there is a freemium
access level which allows certain free features for customers. Customers benefit from
getting access to the industry insights, metrics and data services provided by the Service
Controller. Moreover, they can directly affect how the ecosystem develops to provide them
value in the future by providing feedback and service demands.

Firas

7. M. Explain in your own words the relationship between the Actor object and the Role object
based on the Governance graph. Also interpret, what is the difference between the IS and
HAS relationship type between Actor and Role? Give an example of the IS and HAS
relationships between Actor and Role!

The actor object describes a certain entity type in the model. Numerous actors can have
the same role. In other words, roles act as a grouping method for actors that are related to
the same business functions within the model.

IS represents parent-to-child relationships between roles and actors and roles and roles.
HAS represents a business function relationship. For example, banks and business
development organizations are customers in the ecosystem who can pay for access to the
data services. In this case the Customer role IS a Contracted service end-user that HAS
access to the digital service. At the same time, Customer IS both banks and business
development organizations.

Firas

8. E. Going through the model from the following three perspectives, which parts of the model
would you MOST be interested in? Please answer this question by specifying the fitting
graph(s) and sub-container(s).
a. Developer
b. Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
c. Business Development Manager

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Developer Perspective:

Graph(s): Development Process, Collaboration Tools

Sub-container(s): Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Version Control System (VCS),
Issue Tracking System, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) Pipeline

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Perspective:

Graph(s): Strategic Partnerships, Business Performance

Sub-container(s): Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Revenue Streams, Market Analysis,
Strategic Objectives

Business Development Manager Perspective:

Graph(s): Growth Opportunities, Innovation Initiatives

Sub-container(s): Market Trends Analysis, Partnership Opportunities, New Product
Development, Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Ashfaq

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9. E. Based on the legal and regulatory graph, describe in your own words what you need to
know about the regulatory environment of the ecosystem from these three perspectives:
a. Developer
b. Strategic partner
c. Service Controller

a. Developer has to take account user consent from regulatory perspective. This is fairly
simple and straight-forward task from regulatory perspective. It consists of handling user’s
data based on consent so GDPR for example is important.

b. Strategic partner has been marked to be responsible of the partnership agreements and
data specification documents. Dispute resolution agreements, ecosystem governance
model and data processing agreements have been marked as “complies with”. It should be
noted that strategic partner has to also comply logically with partnership agreement and
possibly with data specification document. Therefore, due to DPA and data specification
document data security standards and regulations have to be taken account (e.g. cyber
resilience act). Also, there is two agreements that are related to partnership regulations
(partnership agreements and dispute resolution agreements).

c. Service controller is marked to comply with agreement on data and service usage that is
provided by external data provider. Service controller is also responsible of partnership
agreements, data specification document, dispute resolution agreements, ecosystem
governance model, data processing agreements, user agreements, terms of service and
privacy policy. Therefore, service controller has to take account pretty much all the laws
that and standards that are mentioned in the graph.

Lassi

10. M. There is a demand for a new kind of Customer who uses services only one time, without
becoming a Contracted Service End-User (Role). To model this change, we need to create a
new Role called “External Service End-User” that is connected to the Customer (Role).
Please follow the example of the Contracted Service End-user Role. List and describe
concisely what new components and relationships you need to add to the model related to
the new role “External Service End-User”. Go through each of these graphs: Governance,
Business, Technology, Legal & Regulatory Context.

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Governance Graph:
New Component: External Service End-User Role
New Relationship: Connected to Customer Role

Business Graph:
New Component: External Service End-User Role
New Relationship: Linked to Customer Role

Technology Graph:
New Component: External Service End-User Role
New Relationship: Associated with Customer Role

Legal & Regulatory Context Graph:

New Component: External Service End-User Role
New Relationship: Related to Customer Role

Ashfaq

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11. D. Currently, the ecosystem is in its formation phase. In this phase, the Strategic Partners
(Role) and the Service Controller (Role) are key to successfully build the ecosystem. Without
the other, they cannot do it. However, this dependency is currently not clear in the
Governance graph. As a modeler, how would you express that two roles are BOTH needed to
take care of a responsibility (e.g., to develop a service)? You can add new components, new
relationships, or new rules concerning the components and their relationship. Describe
concisely your idea.

Well, both strategic partner and service controller are already connected to point that says
“is responsible for”. From this point there is three arrows leading to three tasks. We could
simply add fourth task for “developing a service/ecosystem”. This would imply that both
are responsible for this task and this task would also logically belong inside the
responsibilities box.

Lassi

12. D. The company having the Service Controller Role wants to use this model to transform a
Customer (Role) called Regional Development Agency into a Strategic Partner (Role). Describe
concisely what that requires in real life based on the model. Go through each of these graphs:
Governance, Business, Technology, Legal & Regulatory Context.

Governance Graph:
Update governance policies to accommodate the transition.
Define roles and responsibilities for Strategic Partners.

Business Graph:
Redefine the relationship with Regional Development Agency.
Establish strategic objectives and collaboration agreements.

Technology Graph:
Integrate Regional Development Agency's systems.
Provide access to tools and resources.

Legal & Regulatory Context Graph:

Amend contracts or establish new agreements.
Ensure compliance with partnership regulations.

Ashfaq

13. D. Think about a situation where there’s a plan to internationalize the business. What needs
to be considered in the model? You can change, add, or delete components in any of the
graphs: governance, business, technology, or legal and regulatory context. Brainstorm, and
list a few things!

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 Business:
- The risks container now needs to include the international transition process.
- Strategic partner include local or regional partners as actors.
Technology:
- External data (market trends data, industrial data) and raw data (HR and
accounting and finance data) should be changed and specified to “localized”.
- Due to GDPR the model should now be modified to include or specify regional
cloud data storage.
Governance:
- Certain countries require JVs and partnerships with local operators for foreign
businesses to operate: Governance may have to include a JV partner under
investors.
- Regional partners actor under strategic partner.
Legal and Regulatory:
- The model needs to include the new laws, acts, and regulations it is now under.
- May require the onboarding of new standards that certain governments potentially
require in IT governance.
- Cloud infrastructure location impact needs to change to high from medium due to
data residency requirements in the EU and in potential international target
markets such as Russia or the UAE.

Firas

14. D. Look at the governance graph. The ecosystem is currently in its forming phase, and there is
one leader paving the way towards an operating ecosystem. In the operating phase, the
ecosystem is planned to be governed collaboratively by a set of actors to facilitate data-
driven innovations. Who do you think these key actors could be, that jointly will govern the
ecosystem in the operating phase? Justify your answer, and describe concisely how these
actors contribute to making the shared vision of the ecosystem (i.e., to facilitate data-driven
innovations) a reality.

Investors can be seen as the actor who is pushing the ecosystem towards being
operational. Since they hold the capital that is needed also for maintenance in operational
phase, we could assume that they are part of the governance. This can be expected to be
very high level of governance that wasn’t really emphasized in the question. Internal data
and analytics expertise most likely will be part of the data-driven innovation since they
have hands on experience on how to utilize the data for innovations. Also, business
management company can be key actor in governance since they have the service
controller role which gets the goal of “data-driven innovations”. These actors could give
different perspectives to data driven innovation by connecting approaches from higher
business perspective with raw data analytics perspective.

Lassi

Finally, please answer this question related to this assignment:

15. Do you give your consent to use your answers as part of our research related to evaluating
the Ecosystem Governance Compass? Your answers will be anonymized and aggregated. No
answer can be traced back to you. Thank you for considering helping our research activities

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 to develop the Ecosystem Governance Compass further!
Your answer: YES

REFERENCES
Wang. (2021). Connecting the Parts with the Whole: Toward an Information Ecology Theory of Digital
Innovation Ecosystems. MIS Quarterly, 45(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2021/15864

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