The present study investigates activities and actors’ roles in how companies utilise and adopt big data and cognitive systems in their business processes. Based on the literature review, a qualitative analysis of 18 in-depth interviews with participants from six companies and a complementary review of five illustrative case companies, we identify five different roles to create business value or new business opportunities in the collaborative networks. Based on those business roles, we also identified activities and outcomes. This study contributes to the debate regarding business roles and activities and how companies create value in adopting data and cognitive systems in collaborative networks. For practitioners, the findings show that different data-driven business roles and opportunities exist in the collaborative networks. The business roles are not exclusive, and the same company can have several roles depending on the business case.