A morphology of the organisation of data governance

Both information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners consider data governance as a promising approach for companies to improve and maintain the quality of corporate data, which is seen as critical for being able to meet strategic business requirements, such as compliance or integrated customer management. Both sides agree that data governance primarily is a matter of organisation. However, hardly any scientific results have been produced so far indicating what actually has to be organised by data governance, and what data governance may look like. The paper aims at closing this gap by developing a morphology of data governance organisation on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art both in science and in practice. Epistemologically, the morphology represents an analytic theory, as it serves for structuring the research topic of data governance, which is still quite unexplored. Six mini case studies are used to evaluate the morphology by means of empirical data. Providing a foundation for further research, the morphology contributes to the advancement of the scientific body of knowledge. At the same time, it is beneficial to practitioners, as companies may use it as a guideline when organising data governance.