Whither the need and motivation for open government data (OGD) promotional strategies?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-07-2022-0078 |
| Published date | 08 February 2023 |
| Date | 08 February 2023 |
| Pages | 153-168 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
| Author | Charalampos Alexopoulos,Stuti Saxena,Marijn Janssen,Nina Rizun |
Whither the need and motivation for
open government data (OGD)
promotional strategies?
Charalampos Alexopoulos, Stuti Saxena, Marijn Janssen and Nina Rizun
Abstract
Purpose –It has been underscored in the extant literature that open government data (OGD) has not
percolated acrossthe length and breadth of any country, let alone the awareness of the OGDamong the
stakeholdersthemselves. In this vein, this study aims to underline the reasons as to why OGD promotion
meritsconsideration apart from underliningthe manner in which OGD promotion may be done.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on literature review on the OGD conceptual models and
government promotion initiatives, the study further sketches an OGD model across four quadrants:
beginners, followers, fast-trackers, trend-setters on the basis of the progress made in their OGD
initiativesbesides underlining the four elementsof OGD promotional strategy as media,arena, substance
and stakeholders.Also, the study explores the driversand barriers to OGD promotional initiatives.
Findings –The study shows thatacross the OGD quadrants, the promotional strategiesvary in terms of
the 4As (acceptability, affordability, accessibility and awareness), and the same get reflected across
MASS. Further, the drivers for OGD promotional initiatives are building citizens’ trust and forging
stakeholder participation and collaboration in administration, thereby furthering transparency in
administration, meeting theneeds of the stakeholders, providing the desired impetus to value creation
and innovation by the stakeholders and the need for furthering economic growth. Likewise, the barriers
toward OGD promotionare linked with the lack of political will, lack of organizationalleadership, mission
and vision, lack of involvement of government departments, lack of budget and lack of requisite
infrastructurefor promotion.
Originality/value –Hitherto, OGD research has underscored the need to make the users aware of the
potential of OGD initiative; however, no study has been undertaken to understandthe manner in which
the awarenessmay be driven among the users –thepresent study is a first step in this direction.
Keywords Open government data, OGD, Promotion, Drivers, Barriers,Literature review
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Open government data (OGD) initiative is considered as an advanced stage of e-government.
As a fast-burgeoning concept, OGD initiatives are being projected as a promising endeavor of
the governments to further transparency in administration and curbing corruption. OGD initiatives
also help in bolstering citizen trust apart from furthering citizen collaboration and participation in
administration (Attard et al., 2015). OGD, as such, is the provision of data (in machine-readable
formats to be amenable for statistical analysis and interpretation) pertaining to the government
functioning and operations via dedicated or independent Web portals for citizen re-use (Safarov,
Meijer and Grimmelikhuijsen, 2017). The reason for promoting re-use of data sets by the citizens
is that it is hoped that the re-use of these data sets would lead to value creation and innovation.
Thus, professionals like academia, farmers, developers, businessmen or the entrepreneurs,
non-profit organizations, journalists, etc. are involved in the value creation process by re-using the
data sets (Gonzalez-Zapata and Heeks, 2015). With these innovations involving a range of
Charalampos Alexopoulos
is based at the Department
of Information and
Communication Systems
Engineering, University of
the Aegean, Mytilene,
Greece.
Stuti Saxena is based at the
Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences,
Graphic Era (Deemed to be
University), Dehradun, India.
Marijn Janssen is based at
the Faculty of Technology,
Policy and Management,
Delft University of
Technology, Delft, The
Netherlands. Nina Rizun is
based at the Department of
Informatics in
Management, Gdansk
University of Technology,
Gdansk, Poland.
Received 10 July 2022
Revised 3 October 2022
24 November 2022
21 December 2022
2 January 2023
Accepted 2 January 2023
DOI 10.1108/DPRG-07-2022-0078 VOL. 25 NO. 2 2023, pp. 153-168, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jPAGE 153
stakeholder groups, it is anticipated that the public service delivery formats shall witness
improvisation apart from bolstering the economy as a whole (Chan, 2013;Zeleti et al., 2016). As
OGD is sourced from diverse government bodies, these data sets pertain to diverse socio-
economic and political sectors like energy, environment, transport, education, mining, agriculture,
industries, etc. OGD is provided license-free, and as long as the terms of use are being adhered
to by the users, there are no restrictions as far as the re-use is concerned. However, what is
critical to be borne in mind is that the quality of the data sets should be par excellence,i.e.data
sets should be complete, error-free, supported with metadata (information pertaining to the
authorship, date of updation, source, etc.), timely, accurate, etc. For an overview of OGD, the
reader is recommended to peruse previous works (Attard et al., 2015;Wirtz and Birkmeyer, 2015;
Wirtz et al., 2022).
A number of countries across theglobe have implemented OGD initiatives, and established
indices have benchmarked the same across different parameters (e.g. Global Open Data
Index (GODI), Open Data Barometer (ODB), the Open, Useful and Re-usable data
(OURdata) Index, the Open Data Inventory (ODIN), the Open Data Maturity Report(ODMR)
and the OGD Index (OGDI)). However, the awareness about the OGD initiatives per se is
lacking among the stakeholders, thereby preventing the re-use of the data sets for value
creation and innovation. That the awareness about OGD among the users is lacking has
been clinched in at least four research studies (Chokki, et al., 2022;Janssen et al., 2012;
Gebka et al.,2019;Saxena, 2017b). Thus, it is important that awareness campaigns be done
by the government for ensuring that the data sets are being re-used by the stakeholde rs
concerned. However, there has been negligible research regarding the manne r in which
awareness of OGD might be furthered to facilitate the re-use and adopti on of OGD among the
stakeholders. Thus, the present study seeks to address this research gap by un derlining this
facet regarding the drivers and barriers for OGD promotional activiti es by the government.
Specifically, the guiding research objective of the present study is to identify the key element s
for OGD promotion for wider reach and awareness among the stakehol ders concerned.
The study is structured as follows: following a brief on related research regarding OGD models
and promotional initiatives by the government, a new conceptual OGD model (beginners,
followers, fast-trackers, trend-setters) is proposed. Then, a brief is provided regarding OGD
promotion, with a focus on four elements of OGD promotional strategy as media, arena,
substance and stakeholders (MASS). Furthermore, the drivers and barriers for OGD promotional
initiatives are being outlined, and thereafter, a concluding section is provided along with
academic and practitioner implications.
Research methodology
Literature veering around e-government, OGD and promotion was scanned. Two strands of
OGD research may be referred here: OGD models and government promotion initiatives.
The rationale for identification of the first strand is that to propose a new model based on
OGD promotions, it is pertinent to note if the existing models proposed in the extant
literature underline the need for OGD promotions. The raison d’etre for identification of the
second strand is that it is important to deepen our understanding regarding the existing
initiatives on the part of the government to spearhead their administrative innovations that
are specifically citizen-centric. To identify the main argumentsbuilt around both the strands,
extensive literature review was done. Specifically, the marketing management theoretical
framework, i.e. the promotional elements, has been referred to address the research
objective. As such, the present study is in line with the assertion that there is a need for
furthering our understanding of the OGD “products and services,” which subsumes
generating awareness among the stakeholders regarding OGD and its benefits (Lindman
et al.,2014
). The justification of invoking a management theoretical framework in the public
administration is that adopting an multidisciplinary approach facilitates knowledge building
via integration of theories from other domains (Dussauge-Laguna, 2013;Ongaro, 2022).
PAGE 154 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jVOL. 25 NO. 2 2023
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