Spaces Or Ecosystems? A Theoretical Framework For Public Data Space-Based Ecosystems

Abstract

In the context of the European Data Strategy, public administrations across Europe are increasingly implementing data spaces to support data sharing, interoperability, and public value creation. At the same time, literature increasingly discusses public data ecosystems. Within this evolving landscape, the distinction between public data spaces and public data ecosystems remains conceptually unclear in the digital government literature as well as in practice. Drawing on a systematic literature review of 29 papers, this study systematically compares both concepts across four structural attributes derived from the ecosystem theory: modularity, complementarity, fungibility of investments, and hierarchical control. Focusing explicitly on the public sector, where governance mandates and regulatory frameworks shape coordination arrangements, we show that while both configurations share supermodular complementarities and context-dependent fungibility, they diverge structurally. Public data spaces exhibit high modularity and institutionalized hierarchical coordination, whereas public data ecosystems display predominantly fragmented modularity and rely on distributed, non-hierarchical governance. Based on these findings, we develop a theoretical framework that clarifies the relationship between data spaces and data ecosystems and integrates the notion of data spacebased ecosystems, providing clearer conceptual boundaries to guide future research and support public-sector decision makers in designing appropriate data-sharing configurations.