Examining the socio-technical determinants influencing government agencies' open data publication: A study in Taiwan

Factors influencing open government data post-adoption in the public sector: The perspective of data providers

Providing access to non-confidential government data to the public is one of the initiatives adopted by many governments today to embrace government transparency practices. The initiative of publishing non-confidential government data for the public to use and re-use without restrictions is known as Open Government Data (OGD). Nevertheless, after several years after its inception, the direction of OGD implementation remains uncertain. The extant literature on OGD adoption concentrates primarily on identifying factors influencing adoption decisions. Yet, studies on the underlying factors influencing OGD after the adoption phase are scarce. Based on these issues, this study investigated the post-adoption of OGD in the public sector, particularly the data provider agencies. The OGD post-adoption framework is crafted by anchoring the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework and the innovation adoption process theory. The data was collected from 266 government agencies in the Malaysian public sector. This study employed the partial least square-structural equation modeling as the statistical technique for factor analysis. The results indicate that two factors from the organizational context (top management support, organizational culture) and two from the technological context (complexity, relative advantage) have a significant contribution to the post-adoption of OGD in the public sector. The contribution of this study is threefold: theoretical, conceptual, and practical. This study contributed theoretically by introducing the post-adoption framework of OGD that comprises the acceptance, routinization, and infusion stages. As the majority of OGD adoption studies conclude their analysis at the adoption (decisions) phase, this study gives novel insight to extend the analysis into unexplored territory, specifically the post-adoption phase. Conceptually, this study presents two new factors in the environmental context to be explored in the OGD adoption study, namely, the data demand and incentives. The fact that data providers are not influenced by data requests from the agency's external environment and incentive offerings is something that needs further investigation. In practicality, the findings of this study are anticipated to assist policymakers in strategizing for long-term OGD implementation from the data provider's perspective. This effort is crucial to ensure that the OGD initiatives will be incorporated into the public sector's service thrust and become one of the digital government services provided to the citizen.

Factors Influencing Citizens’ Intention to Use Open Government Data—A Case Study of Pakistan

Open government data (OGD) has gained much attention worldwide; however, there is still an increasing demand for exploring research from the perspective of its adoption and diffusion. Policymakers expect that OGD will be used on a large scale by the public, which will result in a range of benefits, such as: faith and trust in governments, innovation and development, and participatory governance. However, not much is known about which factors influence the citizens’ intention to use OGD. Therefore, this research aims at empirically investigating the factors that influence citizens’ intention to use OGD in a developing country using information systems theory. Improved knowledge and understanding of the influencing factors can assist policymakers in determining which policy initiatives they can take to increase the intention to widely use OGD. Upon conducting a survey and performing analysis, findings reveal that perceived usefulness, social approval, and enjoyment positively influences intention, whereas voluntariness of use negatively influences OGD use. Further, perceived usefulness is significantly affected by perceived ease of use, and OGD use is significantly affected by OGD use intention. However, surprisingly, the intention to use OGD is not significantly affected by perceived ease of use. The policymakers suggest increasing the intention to use OGD by considering significant factors.

Performance of open government data in a developing economy: a multi-stakeholder case analysis of Ghana

Purpose

This study uses the technology fit–viability theory to study the performance of one of the early pioneers of open government data (OGD) in Africa. The study aims to investigate the task and technology fit, as well as the economic, IT infrastructure and organisational viability as performance measures for the Ghana Open Government Data (GOGD) initiative.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a qualitative approach by interviewing key actors within the GOGD ecosystem, namely, the OGD implementing body, data suppliers and data users. The results were compared with established OGD best practices and standards around the world.

Findings

The results suggest that Ghana’s OGD architecture appears far from meeting its fit and viability goals because of lacklustre performance attributed to the following factors: a complete lack of synergy among various stakeholder groups and actors in the GOGD ecosystem, a lack of sustainable financial support for the implementing body, a shortage of qualified staff for the GOGD project and partial neglect of GOGD as a consequence of the implementation of a new project called eTransform.

Research limitations/implications

This research is limited to Ghana’s OGD initiative. Perhaps, a comparative study on the performance of other OGD initiatives in Africa and other developed countries will present another view of how OGD initiatives are performing across the globe. Again, the number of interviewees in the study may not be sufficient to generalise the results.

Practical implications

The study guides developing economies on how to examine national and international legal frameworks that have consequences on the usage of OGD at the national and sub-national levels. Besides, the study results will help implementing agencies and by extension government to be wary of the consequences of neglecting relevant stakeholders in the implementation process. The study also emphasizes on the need for developing economies to have sustainable funding and technical support for OGD implementation.

Social implications

The study helps shape citizens’ understanding of what the government is doing pursuant to making data readily available for them. Because OGD spurs innovations, citizens’ continuous involvement is key in the process of realising government drive to be open and accountable to citizens through data.

Originality/value

This research is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to present a retrospective and prospective view of a country’s OGD implementation to ascertain the country’s fit and viability. More uniquely, this study will be the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, in assessing the performance of OGD setup in Africa.

Open government data: A systematic literature review of empirical research

Open government data (OGD) holds great potential for firms and the digital economy as a whole and has attracted increasing interest in research and practice in recent years. Governments and organizations worldwide are struggling in exploiting the full potential of OGD and require a comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon. Although scientific debates in OGD research are intense and heterogeneous, the field lacks theoretical integration of OGD topics and their systematic consideration in the context of the digital economy. In addition, OGD has been widely neglected by information systems (IS) research, which promises great potential for advancing our knowledge of the OGD concept and its role in the digital economy. To fill in this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review of 169 empirical OGD studies. In doing so, we develop a theoretical review framework of Antecedents, Decisions, Outcomes (ADO) to unify and grasp the accumulating isolated evidence on OGD in context of the digital economy and provide a theory-informed research agenda to tap the potential of IS research for OGD. Our findings reveal six related key topic clusters of OGD research and substantial gaps, opening up prospective research avenues and particularly outlining how IS research can inform and advance OGD research.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12525-022-00582-8.

Determinant Factors for Adoption of Government as a Platform in South Korea: Mediating Effects on the Perception of Intelligent Information Technology

This study aims to shed light on determinant factors for the introduction of Government as a Platform (GaaP) by public officers who can be platform providers or main stakeholders in GaaP. It focuses on public officers in 261 Korean public agencies. In order to verify the research model’s hypotheses, we take advantage of Structural Equation Modeling and the Technology Acceptance Model. As a first result, concerning the direct effect on GaaP, the quality of open data, the scope of the stakeholders, and attitudes to civic engagement have a positive relationship on the perceived usefulness of Intelligent Information Technology (IIT). Second, in terms of the effect of IIT on GaaP, the perceived usefulness of IIT mediates positively on the intention to adopt GaaP based on the quality of open data, the scope of the stakeholders, and attitudes towards civic engagement. Based on these results, policy implications can be described as follows. Besides managing internal open data, governments should actively mine new open data that can create added value for innovation. They need to create an easily cooperative environment with other stakeholders, especially non-public participants, and governments should encourage public officers to more actively accept and utilize IIT in their jobs.

Exploring continuance usage intention toward open government data technologies: an integrated approach

Purpose

Open government data (OGD) is a comparatively new field in e-government and the factors influencing its continuance use by citizens have not been extensively explored. A better understanding of these factors can help the government to articulate strategies and policies that can advance the acceptance and use of OGD technologies. Thus, this paper aims to empirically determine the predictors influencing the continuance usage intention of OGD technologies.

Design/methodology/approach

Following an empirical investigation among 370 respondents in Bangladesh, a developing country, the paper applied path analysis using the structural equation modeling approach. The unified theory of acceptance and use of the technology model is integrated with the information system continuance model to investigate the continuance usage intention of OGD technologies.

Findings

The outcomes of this study reveal that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions (FC) directly affect users’ satisfaction (SAT). In addition, SAT and FC were found statistically significant toward continuance usage intention of OGD technologies.

Practical implications

The findings of this study suggest policymaker and OGD providers to formulate or modify their strategies to retain the existing OGD users and stimulate persistence usage.

Social implications

Facilitating long-term use by citizens would increase their engagement and they might derive value from the OGD platforms. Concurrently, the government’s objective of ensuring increased future use of OGD technologies would be better realized.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study lies in the fact that it addresses a previously overlooked area of open data research, namely, the acceptance and use of open data technologies and ways to stimulate it. This study has contributed to the existing but limited literature on continuance usage intention of OGD technologies in the context of a developing country.

Incentive mechanisms for government officials' implementing open government data in China

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing the behaviors of government officials during the implementation of open government data (OGD). By identifying and understanding the key factors that determine government officials' adoption of OGD in China, this study can create a valuable reference for other countries and their decision-making regarding government implementation of OGD.

Design/methodology/approach

This research collected data by in-depth interviews with government officials in Chinese OGD departments. Through these interviews, the authors consulted 15 administrators from departments that are responsible for the information tasks in Beijing and other cities on their opinions about OGD. The authors also interviewed senior executives from information technology (IT) companies, as well as open data policy scholars from big data alliance and research institutions.

Findings

This paper provides insights about how to promote government officials in OGD implementation, including (1) strengthen social supervision for the environment, through developing and publishing OGD technology roadmaps, then attracting the public to actively participate in the implementing of OGD; (2) establish an OGD assessment mechanism for government officials, with bonus motivations, position promotion incentives, as well as spiritual incentives via regional or sector rankings; (3) alleviate the risks of officials' OGD decisions in actual practice, using the institution construction of OGD to guide its direction and strengthen security protection.

Originality/value

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how government officials' behavior can be motivated on OGD implementation.

Creating value using public big data: comparison of driving factors from the provider's perspective

Purpose

The revitalization of big data has gained attention in the public sector. However, such open government data (OGD) is facing major challenges with respect to data quality and limited use. To solve this problem, this study analyzes the factors driving the use of OGD from the perspective of data providers in the public sector.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the analytic hierarchy process and analytic network process methodologies, the importance of the factors driving the use of big data in the public sector was ranked. In addition, the different characteristics of tasks among the departments in a public agency were compared based on expert interviews.

Findings

The factors driving OGD use are not only political environment or the technological environment. The importance of the institutional culture within the organization increases with the motivation of the data provider. The priorities of the OGD factors also depend on the objectives of the department involved.

Originality/value

This study provides implications for improving the publication of open data by analyzing the priorities of the factors driving its use from the perspective of big data providers. It focuses on different perceptions of the factors valued by public officials in charge of data in institutions. The results suggest the need to explore officials' perceptions of value creation in big data fields.

Modeling of Open Government Data for Public Sector Organizations Using the Potential Theories and Determinants—A Systematic Review

Open government data (OGD) has huge potential to increase transparency, accountability, and participation while improving efficiency in operations, data-driven and evidence-based policymaking, and trust in government institutions. Despite its potential benefits, OGD has not been widely and successfully adopted in public sector organizations, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the theories/frameworks and potential determinants that influence the OGD adoption in public sector organizations. To ascertain the various determinants of OGD adoption in public sector organizations, this study involved a systematic review of already established theories and determinants addressed in the public sector open data domain. The review revealed that the TOE (technology, organization, environment) framework was dominantly employed over theories in the earlier studies to understand organizational adoption to OGD followed by institutional theory. The results, concerning potential determinants, revealed that some of the most frequently addressed determinants are an organization’s digitization/digitalization capacity, compliance pressure, financial resources, legislation, policy, regulations, organizational culture, political leadership commitment, top-management support, and data quality. The findings will enrich researchers to empirically investigate the exposed determinants and improve the understanding of decision-makers to leverage OGD adoption by taking relevant measures.

Citizen engagement with open government data

Purpose

Citizen engagement is key to the success of many Open Government Data (OGD) initiatives. However, not much is known regarding how this type of engagement emerges. This study aims to investigate the necessary conditions for the emergence of citizen-led engagement with OGD and to identify which factors stimulate this type of engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the authors created a systematic overview of the literature to develop a conceptual model of conditions and factors of OGD citizen engagement at the societal, organizational and individual level. Second, the authors used the conceptual model to systematically study citizens’ engagement in the case of a particular OGD initiative, namely, the digitization of presidential election results data in Indonesia in 2014. The authors used multiple information sources, including interviews and documents, to explore the conditions and factors of OGD citizen-led engagement in this case.

Findings

From the literature the authors identified five conditions for the emergence of OGD citizen-led engagement as follows: the availability of a legal and political framework that grants a mandate to open up government data, sufficient budgetary resources allocated for OGD provision, the availability of OGD feedback mechanisms, citizens’ perceived ease of engagement and motivated citizens. In the literature, the authors found six factors contributing to OGD engagement as follows: democratic culture, the availability of supporting institutional arrangements, the technical factors of OGD provision, the availability of citizens’ resources, the influence of social relationships and citizens’ perceived data quality. Some of these conditions and factors were found to be less important in the studied case, namely, citizens’ perceived ease of engagement and citizens’ perceived data quality. Moreover, the authors found several new conditions that were not mentioned in the studied literature, namely, citizens’ sense of urgency, competition among citizen-led OGD engagement initiatives, the diversity of citizens’ skills and capabilities and the intensive use of social media. The difference between the conditions and factors that played an important role in the case and those derived from the literature review might be because of the type of OGD engagement that the authors studied, namely, citizen-led engagement, without any government involvement.

Research limitations/implications

The findings are derived using a single case study approach. Future research can investigate multiple cases and compare the conditions and factors for citizen-led engagement with OGD in different contexts.

Practical implications

The conditions and factors for citizen-led engagement with OGD have been evaluated in practice and discussed with public managers and practitioners through interviews. Governmental organizations should prioritize and stimulate those conditions and factors that enhance OGD citizen engagement to create more value with OGD.

Originality/value

While some research on government-led engagement with OGD exists, there is hardly any research on citizen-led engagement with OGD. This study is the first to develop a conceptual model of necessary conditions and factors for citizen engagement with OGD. Furthermore, the authors applied the developed multilevel conceptual model to a case study and gathered empirical evidence of OGD engagement and its contributions to solving societal problems, rather than staying at the conceptual level. This research can be used to investigate citizen engagement with OGD in other cases and offers possibilities for systematic cross-case lesson-drawing.

Examining the Factors of Open Government Data Usability From Academician's Perspective

This article examines factors that can be argued to influence the academician's behavioral intentions in using open government data (OGD). Policy-makers and practitioners will determine policy instruments in increasing acceptance and use of OGD by maintaining a good understanding of these factors. In this article, Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory has been proposed and used in order to empirically examine these factors taking perceived characteristics of innovations. Relevant hypotheses have been developed through the literature review, forming a preliminary research model, while respective influences of the factors on the behavioral intention to use open government data have been statistically tested. Results have shown that compatibility and voluntariness have had a strong influence on behavioral intention, whereas a 66.2% variance has been found in academicians' behavioral intentions to use open government data.

Prospects of open government data (OGD) in facilitating the economic diversification of GCC region

Purpose

As the ongoing oil prices’ crisis is emerging as a major cause of concern for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the constituent governments are attempting at undertaking measures of economic diversification to attain long-term sustainability. The author posits that open government data (OGD) has a significant role to play in facilitating the economic turnaround of the GCC region, given that OGD promotes innovation and economic growth besides providing avenues for collaboration and participation among different stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a structured literature review, the paper scans literature on OGD followed by providing a typology of countries on the basis of their OGD-adherence (“laggard”, “caged”, “forerunner” and “champ”). This is followed by a discussion on the ongoing oil prices’ crisis, and evidentiary support is lent by examples from the OGD portals of each of the six GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) to provide indicators as to how a robust OGD implementation may support their economic diversification objectives.

Findings

Although the present OGD framework of the GCC is relatively weak, it is asserted that OGD has immense potential in facilitating the economic diversification initiatives of the GCC countries. Therefore, the GCC needs to strategize upon institutionalization of their OGD initiatives for realizing their “vision” and goals of economic diversification to result in an economic turnaround effectively.

Originality/value

Besides providing a typology of countries as OGD-adherents and categorizing GCC as “forerunner(s)” on the basis of the typology, the originality of the study lies in its attempt to answer the research question: “what is the role of the OGD in facilitating the economic diversification of the GCC?” Conceding that the research on OGD in the GCC context is few and far between, the present study is a significant contribution to the extant literature pertaining to the roll-out of OGD in developing countries.