License to Value: Data Act Driven Transformation of Industrial Data Use

_{Picture: Picasso Museum, Malaga / Timo Seppälä}

^{Text: Timo Seppälä, Ruurik Holm, Jari Juhanko, Ilkka Lakaniemi, Roy Nyberg, Marko Turpeinen}

A research collaboration with Aalto University’s School of Science (Departments of Industrial Engineering and Management, and Computer Science), School of Business (Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research, CKIR), and School of Engineering (Aalto Industrial Internet Campus, AIIC).

Overview

License to Value: Data Act Driven Transformation of Industrial Data Use is a 24-month Co-Research project led by Aalto University (PI: Dr. Timo Seppälä) with Combient Group as an industry partner. It examines how the EU Data Act reshapes industrial data use, value chains, and firm strategy, and what policy measures could accelerate beneficial transitions. The project runs through 8/2026–7/2028 and is organized into five work packages covering project management, preliminary research, data collection, analysis/writing, and dissemination.

The research pursues four objectives: (1) determine whether and how the Data Act drives transformation in the business landscape; (2) identify opportunity scenarios and the opportunity cost of not leveraging the Act; (3) document the strategic actions that companies take (and why some do not act); and (4) assess whether complementary policy measures are needed and what is their potential economic impact. Methods include a literature review (WP2), followed by ~80 interviews across at least four EU countries across industries, complemented with documentary data collection (WP3). Part of the data collection will be supported by an AI‑based tool. Data analysis will generate insights that will feed written outputs (WP4) as well as dissemination via various event presentations (WP5).

Key outputs include: three policy briefs, at least two academic manuscripts, a literature review, an internal database of documentary materials, an opportunity‑cost calculation tool to assess impact on the national economy, a firm‑facing strategy white paper, and targeted dissemination activities, such as presentations, at domestic and EU policy and industry venues. The team will coordinate closely with ministries, Business Finland, and industry stakeholders for dissemination and impact, and will exchange lessons with a Vinnova‑funded “sibling” project led by Combient Group and Chalmers University to extend Nordic relevance and uptake.

Background and problem statement

The EU Data Act, with its core provisions enacted in September 2025, represents one of the most significant regulatory interventions in industrial data use in decades. The Act regulates who can access and use data generated by connected devices and related services. Its core goals are to unlock the value of industrial data, improve data portability, and prevent data lock-in by dominant platforms and companies. 

_{[1] The formal name of this legislation is the Data Act, implemented by the European Union. ‘EU Data Act’ term emphasises the origin of the Act. In this document ‘the Data Act’, ‘the Act’ and ‘the EU Data Act’ are used interchangeably; EU, Data Act, https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-act}

By strengthening access rights to data generated by connected products and services, the Data Act has the potential to reshape value added creation, competitive advantage, and power relations across industrial ecosystems. However, there is currently very limited understanding, empirical and theoretical, of how companies are responding to the EU Data Act, how strategically prepared they are, and whether the expected economic benefits are beginning to materialise.

As the Data Act is a policy measure and tool, its intended benefits are on the systemic level. While it matters how companies adapt to the Act and what emerges out of this, the crucial question is the effect on the overall economy and growth. 

Disruption of incumbent firms’ industrial models typically hinges on the ability of new entrants to challenge the established firms. In a data-intensive economy, however, control over data can function as a powerful entry barrier that shields incumbents from emerging competition. Yet, the Data Act’s mandatory data sharing provisions can prompt “creative destruction”: by lowering entry barriers based on data, they expose incumbents to competitive pressure and create room for entrepreneurial innovation in data-driven markets.

A policy trade-off follows. The prospect of proprietary control can be an important incentive for R&D and risk-taking. If firms cannot appropriate a sufficient share of the value of data they generate and collect, they may underinvest in IoT infrastructure, sensors, and data collection capabilities. Compulsory data sharing can depress expected returns on data investments. Consequently, the EU Data Act could simultaneously stimulate some forms of innovation (by enabling entry and recombination) while dampening others (by weakening appropriation incentives).

Viewed through this lens, the EU Data Act operates as an innovation policy instrument via competition policy dynamics. Moreover, it is worth observing that legislation takes several forms: preventive laws prohibit certain actions (e.g., theft), obligating laws require specific behaviours (e.g., wearing seat belts), and enabling laws grant the freedom to act (e.g., the EU Data Act). Because enabling legislation does not compel companies to act, inertia can prevent uptake, and the potential boost to the national economy may be lost. Complementary instruments, such as innovation and industrial policy, are therefore needed to prompt and support firms in taking advantage of new enabling measures. At the present very early stage of implementation, it is unclear whether, and how, companies are leveraging the EU Data Act. This project will provide policymakers with answers to inform decision-making in this area, in an analytically robust manner.

For companies, the EU Data Act undoubtedly creates both significant uncertainty and substantial opportunity. Early evidence suggests that awareness and preparedness vary widely: some large firms have begun strategic repositioning, while many SMEs and service providers remain unclear about the implications for their business models. For Finnish industry, of strong industrial manufacturing, advanced digital capabilities, and a growing base of data-driven service companies, this transformation is highly consequential. Companies that can anticipate regulatory impacts, redesign their data strategies, and leverage newly accessible data sources are likely to gain competitive advantage and unlock new growth pathways.

The economic significance of the project 

The EU Data Act grants new freedoms to access and use data from connected products and services but as noted above, does not itself compel action, so firm inertia or other factors could forfeit economic gains unless complemented by targeted innovation and industrial policy. Lower data-based entry barriers can bring a particular upside for SMEs and more efficient, dynamic value chains. Access to data can reduce switching costs, squeeze incumbents that rely on lock‑in, rewarding firms that compete on service quality and integration.By shifting some bargaining power from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)/platforms toward complementors, new business opportunities arise, creating new value capture along supply chains. Industrial manufacturing sectors are one fitting context for this happening where access to machine and operations data can lead to creation of new predictive maintenance, optimization, and third-party services.

However, while wider access can stimulate entry and recombination, weaker value appropriation possibilities may dampen investment in IoT and data collection, so net benefits depend on which innovations scale and how markets adjust. 

This project provides the timely, rigorous evidence needed to determine whether the Act is spurring innovation, which kinds are emerging, and whether outcomes are economically and societally superior to the status quo, thereby equipping policymakers and firms to convert potential into real gains for the Finnish economy and society. Overall, we see enormous potential for the Finnish economy in the policy reform that the EU Data Act constitutes (see e.g. the case study below).

The project will deliver a rigorous analysis of the current corporate landscape under the EU Data Act by combining a focused literature review with multi-country empirical evidence. It will map firms’ awareness, preparedness, and strategic responses, and assess existing policy tools and capabilities against what is needed to help companies capture the Act’s opportunities, thereby identifying concrete gaps for action. The resulting research report will serve as the foundation for targeted innovation and industrial policy briefs, providing clear, actionable guidance to policymakers as the Data Act has become a practical framework for innovation and industrial policy. 

The novelty of the research project

The novelty of the project lies in its timing, focus, and analytical perspective. First, the project targets a critical early implementation window. While the EU Data Act was adopted in 2023, its most impactful provisions only became applicable in late 2025. Existing studies are predominantly legal or ex-ante policy analyses; empirical research on real company behaviour, strategic choices, and emerging business practices is largely absent. This project will be among the first to systematically study how firms are reacting once the regulation starts to “bite”. 

Second, the project moves beyond compliance to focus on strategic, economic and system-level implications. Instead of compliance, the research examines how firms reinterpret data access rights as strategic resources: Who invests in new data-driven services? Who reconfigures supplier and customer relationships? Who captures new value -- and who risks losing it? This positions the project firmly within growth, value creation and industrial policy.

Third, the project explicitly addresses power in industrial data ecosystems. Industrial data has traditionally reinforced the dominance of actors controlling customer interfaces or proprietary platforms. The Data Act potentially disrupts these structures by redistributing access and usage rights. By analysing principals, suppliers, and data-intensive service firms simultaneously, the project introduces an ecosystem-level understanding of how data-enabled power structures evolve under regulation; this, in turn, may bear important consequences on how innovation policy should be conceived in the new situation.

Keywords: Data Act, New business opportunities, Manufacturing Industry, Research project

Background Literature

Seppälä, T., Juhanko, J., & Mattila, J., (2015). Data ownership and governance, In Finland – The Silicon Valley of Industrial Internet, p. 16,  https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-287-189-3

Ailisto, H., Mäntylä, M., Seppälä, T. et al. (2016), Onko Suomi jäämässä alustatalouden junasta? Valtioneuvoston kanslia.  https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-287-253-1  

Seppälä, T., (2018/2019). Data act and AI act in formation – What should be considered when developing new EU-level legislation? Advisory work to Ministry of Transport and Communications

Teknologiateollisuus (2019), Teknologiateollisuuden datan jakamisen malliehdot, https://teknologiateollisuus.fi/jasenille/wp-content/uploads/sites/1/2024/11/Taustatiedot-Teknologia_datan_jakamisen_malliehdot-1.pdf 

Mattila, J., Seppälä, T., Bützow, A., Hynönen, K., & Puittinen, M (2022). ”Teollisuuden sopimukset, uusi datasäädös ja digivihreä siirtymä”. https://pub.etla.fi/ETLA-Muistio-Brief-110.pdf

Papp, A., Bub, U., Lähteenoja, V., Kuikkaniemi, K., Turpeinen, M., Jokela, S. (2025). Data Mesh and Data Space: A Comparative Analysis with a Focus on Governance. In: Zielinski, S., Eichler, G., Erfurth, C., Fahrnberger, G. (eds) Innovations for Community Services. I4CS 2025. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 2513. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-94263-1_10

Teknologiateollisuus (2026), Teknologiateollisuuden uudet datan jakamisen malliehdot, https://teknologiateollisuus.fi/jasenille/helpotusta-datasta-sopimiseen-uudet-malliehdot-julkaistu/