Semiotic mediation in data governance: Towards valuing data as assets

Data intricately links to value in organizations by mediating insights that enhance decision- making, knowledge creation, and strategizing. Yet, traditional data governance frameworks concerned with treating data as “assets” often assume data are static entities with intrinsic value that can be owned by enterprises. This assumption is increasingly untenable as data are dynamic, and gain value across contexts, introducing new challenges for governance. In this paper, we propose semiotic mediation to conceptualize and govern data as assets. Drawing on Peircean semiotics, we move beyond static representationalism towards valuing data as dynamic medium of iconic, indexical, and symbolic significations. Our analysis of four governance practices illustrates how standardizing definitions, regulating quality, controlling access, and managing stewardship mediate different significations of data as assets with direct bearing on how governance is conceived and enacted. The paper contributes to data governance research by showing how the materiality of dynamic data assets demands flexible governance approaches to effectively harness contextual value. Semiotic mediation offers a theoretically coherent, but practically applicable scaffold for valuing data as assets and open new avenues for data governance research.