What Characterizes Data Spaces in Industry 4.0? Towards a Better Understanding

Data spaces are receiving an emerging interest in Information Systems Research and industry practice. They are central to many European research initiatives and shape the data economy in Industry 4.0. Generally, they aim to create secure environments for cross-organizational data management and sharing. Currently, there is considerable interest in developing new data spaces in Industry 4.0, also accelerated through regulatory changes. However, key questions about what precisely characterizes a data space in Industry 4.0 remain unresolved. Against this backdrop, we build a taxonomy of data spaces in the Industry 4.0 context. We identified nine distinctive dimensions and 40 corresponding characteristics among the 19 data spaces analyzed. The taxonomy enables clearer classification and nomenclature of data spaces in this context. This short paper will ignite planned further research on data spaces in Industry 4.0 and contribute to a conceptualization of a taxonomic theory for interested researchers.