World Wide Web

Ecology

Biology

Statistics

Data collection

The Internet

Computer science

Business

Alternative medicine

Industrial Internet

Internet of Things

Mathematics

Domain (mathematical analysis)

Sociology

Mathematical analysis

Industrial organization

Medicine

Knowledge management

Data sharing

Ecosystem

Pathology

Social science

Applied Sciences

The collection and analysis of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) data offer numerous opportunities for value creation, particularly in manufacturing industries. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many of those opportunities are inaccessible without cooperation across enterprise borders and the sharing of data, personnel, finances, and IT resources. In this study, we suggest so-called data cooperatives as a novel approach to such settings. A data cooperative is understood as a legal unit owned by an ecosystem of cooperating SMEs and founded for supporting the members of the cooperative. In a series of 22 interviews, we developed a concept for cooperative IIoT ecosystems that we evaluated in four workshops, and we are currently implementing an IIoT ecosystem for the coolant management of a manufacturing environment. We discuss our findings and compare our approach with alternatives and its suitability for the manufacturing domain.

Cooperative Approaches to Data Sharing and Analysis for Industrial Internet of Things Ecosystems