An Unknown Treasure: How Do Companies in Germany Evaluate their Data?

The basis of efficient data management is evaluation of the data available. This study provides details of the data evaluation methods currently used by German companies. For an empirical analysis, a total of 1,235 firms from different branches of manufacturing industry and industry- related services were surveyed using the IW-Zukunftspanel conducted in spring 2018. The study asks whether, and for what purposes, companies from different sectors, of different sizes and different degrees of internationalization and digital orientation evaluate their data. It also examines the characteristics which lead a company to prefer one data evaluation method over the others. Thus an overview of the status quo in German corporate data evaluation is built up. The empirical analysis shows that data evaluation is still a side issue for German business. Most companies neither analyse their data now nor intend to do so in the future. Of the companies in this sample, it is mainly those that offer digital products that evaluate their data. Companies that do analyse their data usually use more than one method and the majority assess the data’s costs, quality and age. However, the survey reveals no clear preference for a particular method or criterion for data evaluation and thus highlights the complexity of data evaluation in practice.