Despite an increasing awareness in recent years of applying data-driven methods to create and change business models, political science still lack a theoretical and em-pirical understanding of the role of data as a strategic asset in the public sector.

By introducing the notion of data-driven (public) value creation, this thesis seeks to de-velop an analytic framework for identifying key governmental opportunities and challenges in data-driven activities. The main research question is: “Which significant organisational changes in the public sector are introduced by ‘data-driven value creation,’ and what are the problems related to power, economics, ethics, and quality?”

Firstly, ‘data-driven value creation’ is defined and characterised through the analogy of data as a “raw material” to be processed into a valuable asset. Data-driven value creation is then integrated as a technological component into an organisational framework by combining a revitalisation of the Leavitt-diamond’s ability to under-stand the interaction of organisational elements with Meynhardt’s evaluation ap-proach to determine public value. This framework incorporates two questions: How does data-driven activities interact with the organisational elements of the public sec-tor (tasks, structure, people, culture)? And what kind of public value does the ac-tivity provide from a power, economic, quality and ethical perspective?

The framework is then applied to analyse the National Danish General Practice Database (DAMD) as an illustration of data-driven value creation in the public sec-tor. Among the key findings are that (re-)using data for new purposes can involve numerous different actors with different agendas and interests resulting in complex organisational interactions, which in turn impacts on the problems related to Public Value.

The thesis concludes that organisations related to the public sector must take several aspects into consideration when extracting the value of data. That applies to the interrelated adjusting of organisational elements such as tasks, structure, people, cul-ture as well as Public Value aspects such as power (control, ownership, supervision, and access to data), economics (“value for the taxpayer”), ethics (privacy, contexts, and fairness) and quality (service experience and reliability).

Finally the thesis discusses the scope of application for the proposed framework, practical use, and role in further studies.