Data Capital: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Data capital is one of the newly emerging concepts in information technology. It emerged in early 2015, and currently, we have an opportunity to explore it in more detail. Data capital is a way to treat data as an asset that is used to increase revenue, gain profit or generate new income. There has never been a proper review of data capital. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a systematic literature review of academic articles on data capital. We use the Kitchenham method and combine it with the narrative synthesis as prescribed by Cochrane. The obtained results show that there is still very limited academic research related to the concept of data capital. The reviewed articles focus on five issues, i.e., ethical, legal, infrastructure, data capital application, and data capital conceptualisation. This study is the first attempt to conduct a detailed systematic literature review in the data capital context. It provides a broad insight into data capital. It improves our understanding of how data capital is currently developing, why it is important, and the impact of data capital incorporation. Any issues that have been researched in the data capital context are also revealed in this study including the type of research performed, approach used, and method chosen. These insights will encourage other researchers to delve into data capital research.