Citizen engagement with open government data

Residents’ trust in local government councils in an emerging nation: effect of political efficacy, good governance and performance

Purpose

This study aims to explore residents’ trust in local government councils and to examine the effect of political efficacy and good governance on that trust and on the performance of local government councils in an emerging nation.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were analysed using qualitative and quantitative research designs. Firstly, a thematic analysis was performed to explore residents’ trust in local government councils and compare it with the data gathered in the literature review. Thereafter, a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to investigate the hypothesised linkages.

Findings

The thematic analysis of the face-to-face semi-structured interviews discovered four themes (trust, performance, political efficacy and good governance). Additional analysis of these themes via the PLS-SEM approach revealed good governance to be the most influential factor in promoting residents’ trust in local government councils. Political efficacy was the second most influential factor. Residents expect local government councils’ officers to demonstrate a strong commitment to the rule of law and comply with all relevant laws and regulations.

Practical implications

Local government councils should openly accept residents’ requests and suggestions, be more flexible in policy delivery and be responsive to policy demands given the relatively small constituencies and greater policy latitudes. Multiple avenues should be available for interaction between residents and local government councils in the mission to achieve sustainable urban growth.

Originality/value

This study is unique in that it advances existing research that is lacking in the context of the Malaysian local government council. The result alerts are crucial in that they alert local government councils to the need for high levels of governance and accountability in terms of resident support to gain more trust and confidence.

Citizen involvement in digital transformation: a systematic review and a framework

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the factors influencing the success of digital transformation (DT) and problems/challenges in DT as well as the communication methods used to involve citizens, based on a systematic literature review of research articles about citizen involvement in DT published between January 2010 and May 2021.

Design/methodology/approach

After establishing inclusion and exclusion criteria, a systematic review of relevant studies was conducted. Out of a total of 547 articles, 33 met the paper selection criteria.

Findings

The analysis of the included 33 empirical studies reveals that the factors influencing the success of DT can be described as the opposite side from challenges and problems in DT. These factors and challenges/problems all influence DT and they can be grouped into organisational values, management capabilities, organisational infrastructure, and workforce capabilities. The communication methods for citizen involvement in DT include: (1) communication mediated by human, (2) communication mediated by computers, and (3) mixed communication methods.

Originality/value

The study identified specific factors that influence DT supported by citizen involvement, at a more fine-grained level. The findings concerning communication methods extend related studies for citizen involvement by adding town hall meetings and communication methods mediated by computers. Furthermore, this study links the research findings to develop a framework for citizen involvement in DT, assisting in better selecting communication methods to involve citizens for addressing problem areas in DT.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2022-0237

Understanding the role of transparency, participation, and collaboration for achieving open digital government goals in Oman

Purpose

This study aims to understand the roles of transparency, participation and collaboration in pursuit of achieving open digital government (OPG) goals in Oman. The study explores the extent to which these interactive digital apps and other initiatives can enhance digital transparency, collaboration and public participation to achieve ODG goals.

Design/methodology/approach

This study has used triangulation of qualitative method by selecting semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews and public user reviews of ODG apps.

Findings

This research found that collaboration among institutions and transparency of actions and operations besides citizens’ participation in ODG enhance the trust to use ODG services. Therefore, a research framework is devised for synthesizing the significance of public participation and transparency where the aim is to facilitate collaboration among institutions with the purpose to achieve ODG goals. Such collaboration is highly useful for enhancing the ODG public value chain as well as achieving the ODG goals.

Research limitations/implications

This study has recommended practical implications for public institutions and Information technology developers to work collaboratively with the purpose to address the issues of interactivity and compatibility in ODG apps that can enhance public participation and improve the public value chain.

Originality/value

This study has used the institutional theoretical support to build a research framework that can extend the understanding that what factors can play role to achieve ODG goals.

Open government data awareness: eliciting citizens’ requirements for application design

Purpose

Over the past decade, governments around the world have implemented open government data (OGD) policies to make their data publicly available, with collaboration and citizen engagement being one of the main goals. However, even though a lot of data is published, only a few citizens are aware of its existence and usefulness. The purpose of this paper is to identify the requirements for an application that raises awareness of Open Government Data (OGD) to citizens.

Design/methodology/approach

This study followed a design research science approach to collect citizens’ requirements for the design of such an application through interviews with 10 citizens and evaluated through user testing with 25 citizens.

Findings

This study identified and validated 11 requirements that can be implemented to raise citizens’ awareness of OGD. The most useful are listing OGD reuses with information about data used and receiving notification when a new OGD reuse is released. Furthermore, the evaluation results provided evidence of the effectiveness of using an application to improve OGD awareness to citizens.

Originality/value

This research provides requirements that can be used by developers to implement a usable tool to raise citizen awareness or by researchers to evaluate applications whose objective is to raise citizen awareness. Finally, it provides a mobile application that can used by developers to showcase their OGD reuses or by researchers to aware citizens of OGD through real-world examples.

Influence of digital government innovation on transformational government in resource-constrained contexts

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of digital government innovation on transformational government. Digital government innovation is ordinarily implemented as means for the creation of public value. However, realisation of benefits from the digital government platforms has proved to be a challenge, and great discrepancy has been observed in the extent of public value generated, pointing to lack of innovativeness in resource-constrained environments. This research investigates the influence of digital government ambidexterity as an innovation strategy in enhancing transformational government (T-Gov). The authors develop hypotheses relating to digital government ambidexterity with two factors of innovation for enhancing T-Gov: exploitation incremental digital innovation and exploration radical digital innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses are tested using a sample size of 690 citizens interacting through digital government platforms. The authors identify exploitation incremental digital innovation and exploration radical digital innovation as factors, and how these factors of digital government ambidexterity influence information quality for public value creation. The success of T-Gov is associated to the implementation of digital government policy which moderate the relationship between digital government ambidexterity and information quality.

Findings

The empirical outcomes suggest that exploitation incremental digital innovation and exploration radical digital innovation positively influence information quality, thereby leading to public value, and this result become successful if there is implementation of digital government policy. Treating the two factors of digital government innovation as complementary leads to public value creation.

Research limitations/implications

Limited time and funds to conduct a country comparative study. The study only focused on urban municipalities, of which it would be interesting to explore rural municipalities.

Practical implications

Adoption of MunINFORQUAL model for promoting digital government platform utilisation by citizens.

Social implications

The utilisation of digital government platforms would improve citizens’ lives in a number of ways. For instance, citizen municipal interaction for service delivery and social benefits through instant notifications of developmental projects.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the research literature on digital government innovation particularly from resource-constrained environments. Also, the study provides new empirical test using a data set of 690 citizens interacting through digital government platforms.

Application of Open Government Data to Sustainable City Indicators: A Megacity Case Study

The access to open government data has been a relevant topic for societies around the world, especially over the last ten years. This paper aims to analyze the indicators of the São Paulo City Observatory (ObservaSampa), confronting them with the ISO 3712x series (sustainable, smart, and resilient cities) standards, to assess if the former meet both open data principles and the ISO prescriptions. Bibliometric analysis, comparative analysis, cluster analysis, and principal component analysis (PCA) were the methods used in this research. From the comparative analysis, 18 indicators were identified as conforming and 41 as partially conforming. Thus, 20% of the ObservaSampa indicators adhere to the ISO standards. The PCA applied to the conforming indicators shows component 1 is related to socioeconomic dimensions, while component 2 refers to social policy, with both appraisals confirmed by cluster analysis. Measuring and presenting city data in compliance with indicator standards is relevant because they open the possibility of comparing different cities. However, there is still a lack of consensus on a common set of indicators to be accommodated within the current ISO standards system.

Citizens' trust in government as a function of good governance and government agency's provision of quality information on social media during COVID-19

Evidence from literature reveals that good governance practices influence citizens' attitudes and behaviours towards the government. Therefore, grounded on the good governance theory, the current study aimed to empirically examine how good governance practices promote public trust with the underlying mechanism of perceived government response on COVID-19 (PGRC) and moderating role of government agency's provision of quality information on social media (GQS). The data was collected from 491 followers of the Facebook account, Instagram, and Twitter pages of a government news agency, i.e., Associated Press of Pakistan and were analyzed using measurement and structural model by employing SmartPls 3.3.0. The results revealed a direct and indirect association of good governance practices with the public's trust in government via PGRC as mediator. Likewise, results showed that GQS interacts with PGRC and augments public trust in government. This study tried to contribute to the body of knowledge while addressing the gap related to the dearth of literature regarding government use of ICT during the COVID-19 pandemic to harvest benefits from social media while communicating with citizens on a larger scale. Moreover, the current study offers valuable practical and strategical recommendations to agencies and policymakers.

Offene Verwaltungsdaten zur Wirkung bringen: Was sind die Schlüssel zum Erfolg?

Die Digitalisierung schreitet auch im öffentlichen Sektor immer weiter voran. Ein wichtiger Aspekt der Verwaltungsdigitalisierung in vielen Ländern ist die Bereitstellung von Verwaltungsdaten als Open Government Data (OGD), auf Deutsch offene Verwaltungsdaten, denn öffentliche Organisationen produzieren und sammeln oft grosse Mengen an Daten und sind gleichzeitig zur Transparenz verpflichtet. Vermehrt stellt sich jedoch die Frage, wie offene Verwaltungsdaten auch über die Transparenz hinaus eine positive Wirkung im Sinne des Gemeinwohls leisten können und wie dies gefördert werden könnte. Im vorliegenden diskursiven Beitrag beschäftigen wir uns daher in drei Schritten mit den Voraussetzungen und Erfolgsfaktoren der Wirkungserzeugung durch offene Verwaltungsdaten. Erstens diskutieren wir, wie offene Verwaltungsdaten optimal publiziert werden können, so dass sie möglichst einfach von Dritten gefunden, gelesen und weiterbearbeitet werden können. Zweitens besprechen wir, was Wirkung in Bezug auf offene Verwaltungsdaten bedeutet, welche Arten von Wirkung unterschieden werden können und welche Mechanismen potenziell zu Wirkung führen. Drittens fokussieren wir noch spezifisch auf das Instrument der Innovationswettbewerbe, wie beispielsweise Hackathons, als möglichen Schlüssel zum Erfolg. Da öffentliche Organisationen sich vermehrt an solchen Veranstaltungen engagieren, geben wir einige konkrete Empfehlungen für die Vorbereitung und Teilnahme an diesen doch etwas besonderen Wettbewerben, bevor wir ein Fazit ziehen.

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.

An interaction effect of perceived government response on COVID-19 and government agency’s use of ICT in building trust among citizens of Pakistan

Purpose

Among the digital age players, one of the fastest-growing digital channels is social media. In the past few years, developing nations’ government entities and political parties started using social media platforms to broadcast important information regarding decisions made at the state level. Pakistan is among those countries. Therefore, this study aims to empirically investigate the impact of the government agency’s provision of quality information on social media in establishing trust among citizens of Pakistan in a government agency with an underlying mechanism of citizens’ perception about agency’s transparency and responsiveness along with moderating role of perceived government response on COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

Data was collected from 542 social media followers of the Associated Press of Pakistan (a government news agency) and was analysed using measurement and structural models by using SmartPLS 3.3.0.

Findings

Results revealed that the interactive effect of government response on COVID-19 and government agency’s provision of quality information on social media strengthens the association of government presence on social media with citizens’ perception of the agency’s transparency and responsiveness and their trust in the agency.

Practical implications

Furthermore, the current study will contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the government agency’s use of information and communication technology and the government’s resultant response on COVID-19.

Originality/value

An extensive study of the literature revealed a gap available regarding the mediatory role of the citizens’ perception about agency’s transparency and responsiveness in between the association of government agency’s provision of quality information on social media and citizens’ trust in the government agency. Also, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no study to date has investigated the moderating role of government response on COVID-19 in between the relationship of government agency’s provision of quality on social media and citizens’ trust in the government agency and their perception about agency’s transparency and responsiveness. Thus, the current study aimed to address these existing gaps in the literature.

Why open government data initiatives fail to achieve their objectives: categorizing and prioritizing barriers through a global survey

Purpose

Existing overviews of barriers for openly sharing and using government data are often conceptual or based on a limited number of cases. Furthermore, it is unclear what categories of barriers are most obstructive for attaining open data objectives. This paper aims to categorize and prioritize barriers for openly sharing and using government data based on many existing Open Government Data Initiatives (OGDIs).

Design/methodology/approach

This study analyzes 171 survey responses concerning existing OGDIs worldwide.

Findings

The authors found that the most critical OGDI barrier categories concern (in order of most to least critical): functionality and support; inclusiveness; economy, policy and process; data interpretation; data quality and resources; legislation and access; and sustainability. Policymakers should prioritize solving functionality and support barriers and inclusiveness barriers because the authors found that these are the most obstructive in attaining OGDI objectives.

Practical implications

The prioritization of open data barriers calls for three main actions by practitioners to reduce the barrier impact: open data portal developers should develop advanced tools to support data search, analysis, visualization, interpretation and interaction; open data experts and teachers should train potential users, and especially those currently excluded from OGDIs because of a lack of digital skills; and government agencies that provide open data should put user-centered design and the user experience central to better support open data users.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the open data literature by proposing a new, empirically based barrier categorization and prioritization based a large number of existing OGDIs.

Determinants of Overall Public Trust in Local Government: Meditation of Government Response to COVID-19 in Indonesian Context

Purpose

This study aims to empirically investigate the relationship of perceived transparency, perceived accountability and perceived responsiveness with overall public trust in local government. Moreover, it addressed the “why” and “how” questions about the existence of this relationship by examining the underlying mechanism of the government response to COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative research design is applied in the current study. Data was collected from two cities situated in Indonesia via a cross-sectional survey at local administration levels. The final data set of 330 respondents was then analyzed using Smart partial least square (PLS)3 by testing through the measurement and structural model.

Findings

Results revealed positive associations among the study variables. Also, the mediatory role of the government response to COVID-19 was supported by the results.

Originality/value

This study aims to bring awareness and contribution in the body of knowledge about the importance of elements of good governance in building and sustaining public trust in local governments based on the fact that in countries such as Indonesia, there is a dearth of literature in this context. Further, it provides strategic and practical suggestions to the state regarding the advantages of using good governance practices in their communication with citizens in certain and uncertain situations, especially nowadays during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Analysis of the Supply of Open Government Data

An index of the release of open government data, published in 2016 by the Open Knowledge Foundation, shows that there is significant variability in the country’s supply of this public good. What explains these cross-country differences? Adopting an interdisciplinary approach based on data science and economic theory, we developed the following research workflow. First, we gather, clean, and merge different datasets released by institutions such as the Open Knowledge Foundation, World Bank, United Nations, World Economic Forum, Transparency International, Economist Intelligence Unit, and International Telecommunication Union. Then, we conduct feature extraction and variable selection founded on economic domain knowledge. Next, we perform several linear regression models, testing whether cross-country differences in the supply of open government data can be explained by differences in the country’s economic, social, and institutional structures. Our analysis provides evidence that the country’s civil liberties, government transparency, quality of democracy, efficiency of government intervention, economies of scale in the provision of public goods, and the size of the economy are statistically significant to explain the cross-country differences in the supply of open government data. Our analysis also suggests that political participation, sociodemographic characteristics, and demographic and global income distribution dummies do not help to explain the country’s supply of open government data. In summary, we show that cross-country differences in governance, social institutions, and the size of the economy can explain the global distribution of open government data.

The Moderating Effect of Institutional Quality on the Financial Development and Environmental Quality Nexus

Environmental sustainability is a major concern of contemporary societies, businesses, and governments. However, there is a lack of knowledge as to how countries can achieve the goal to end poverty, whilst protecting the planet. It is the objective of our study to examine the moderating role of institutional quality on the financial development and environmental quality nexus in South Asia. Our sample consists of panel data of five South Asian countries (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan) from 1984 to 2018. We find that financial development increases CO2 emissions in this region, implying that countries in South Asia have utilized financial development for capitalization, instead of improving production technology. Institutional quality moderates the negative impact of financial development on environmental sustainability. An implication of our findings is that efforts to improve institutional quality may help to promote sustainable development in South Asia.

Data ecosystems for protecting European citizens’ digital rights

Purpose

This paper aims to spark a debate by presenting the need for developing data ecosystems in Europe that meet the social and public good while committing to democratic and ethical standards; suggesting a taxonomy of data infrastructures and institutions to support this need; using the case study of Barcelona as the flagship city trailblazing a critical policy agenda of smart cities to show the limitations and contradictions of the current state of affairs; and ultimately, proposing a preliminary roadmap for institutional and governance empowerment that could enable effective data ecosystems in Europe.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on lessons learned in previous publications available in the sustainability (Calzada, 2018), regions (Calzada and Cowie, 2017; Calzada, 2019), Zenodo (Calzada and Almirall, 2019), RSA Journal (Calzada, 2019) and IJIS (Calzada, 2020) journals and ongoing and updated fieldwork about the Barcelona case study stemming from an intensive fieldwork action research that started in 2017. The methodology used in these publications was based on the mixed-method technique of triangulation via action research encompassing in-depth interviews, direct participation in policy events and desk research. The case study was identified as the most effective methodology.

Findings

This paper, drawing from lessons learned from the Barcelona case study, elucidates on the need to establish pan-European data infrastructures and institutions – collectively data ecosystems – to protect citizens’ digital rights in European cities and regions. The paper reveals three main priorities proposing a preliminary roadmap for local and regional governments, namely, advocacy, suggesting the need for city and regional networks; governance, requiring guidance and applied, neutral and non-partisan research in policy; and pan-European agencies, leading and mobilising data infrastructures and institutions at the European level.

Research limitations/implications

From the very beginning, this paper acknowledges its ambition, and thus its limitations and clarifies its attempt to provide just an overview rather than a deep research analysis. This paper presents several research limitations and implications regarding the scope. The paper starts by presenting the need for data ecosystems, then structures this need through two taxonomies, all illustrated through the Barcelona case study and finally, concludes with a roadmap consisting of three priorities. The paper uses previous published and ongoing fieldwork findings in Barcelona as a way to lead, and thus encourage the proliferation of more cases through Cities Coalition for Digital Rights (CCDR).

Practical implications

This paper presents practical implications for local and regional authorities of the CCDR network. As such, the main three priorities of the preliminary roadmap could help those European cities and regions already part of the CCDR network to establish and build operational data ecosystems by establishing a comprehensive pan-European policy from the bottom-up that aligns with the timely policy developments advocated by the European Commission. This paper can inspire policymakers by providing guidelines to better coordinate among a diverse set of cities and regions in Europe.

Social implications

The leading data governance models worldwide from China and the USA and the advent of Big Data are dramatically reshaping citizens’ relationship with data. Against this backdrop and directly influenced by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe has, perhaps, for the first time, spoken with its own voice by blending data and smart city research and policy formulations. Inquiries and emerging insights into the potential urban experiments on data ecosystems, consisting of data infrastructures and institutions operating in European cities and regions, become increasingly crucial. Thus, the main social implications are for those multi-stakeholder policy schemes already operating in European cities and regions.

Originality/value

In previous research, data ecosystems were not directly related to digital rights amidst the global digital geopolitical context and, more specifically, were not connected to the two taxonomies (on data infrastructures and institutions) that could be directly applied to a case study, like the one presented about Barcelona. Thus, this paper shows novelty and originality by also opening up (based on previous fieldwork action research) a way to take strategic action to establish a pan-European strategy among cities and regions through three specific priorities. This paper can ultimately support practice and lead to new research and policy avenues.