Information Polity

Safarov, Igbal; Meijer, Albert; Grimmelikhuijsen, Stephan

2017 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-160012

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the literature onthe types, effects, conditions and user of Open Government Data (OGD). Thereview analyses 101 academic studies about OGD which discuss at least one ofthe four factors of OGD utilization: the different types of utilization, theeffects of utilization, the key conditions, and the different users. Ouranalysis shows that the majority of studies focus on the OGD provisionswhile assuming, but not empirically testing, various forms of utilization.The paper synthesizes the hypothesized relations in a multi-dimensionalframework of OGD utilization. Based on the framework we suggest four futuredirections for research: 1) investigate the link between type of utilizationand type of users (e.g. journalists, citizens) 2) investigate the linkbetween type of user and type of effect (e.g. societal, economic and goodgovernance benefits) 3) investigate the conditions that moderate OGD effects(e.g. policy, data quality) and 4) establishing a causal link betweenutilization and OGD outcomes.

Ingrams, Alex

2017 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-160014

Open government reform is frequently being used to promote greatertransparency and participation in government. But conceptual models oftransparency success have not been well articulated, and there is a puzzleregarding whether and why transparency policies perform. One way forward isto assess negative cases of when open government initiatives fall far shortof their stipulated goals. Policy failure can be specifically measured andhas strong empirical and normative salience given that poor transparencyperformance is a common phenomenon. In order to address the transparencyperformance puzzle, this paper employs institutional theory and uses fuzzyset qualitative comparative analysis to assess whether any combination offactors proposed by the theory present necessary or sufficient conditionsfor failing open government initiatives. Results show that no single condition isnecessary for failure to occur. Four `recipes' of policy failure existrevealing a strong influence of lack of legal mandates and weak civilsociety support combined with either a poor information rights environmentor low resources.

Van Cauter, Lies; Verlet, Dries; Snoeck, Monique; Crompvoets, Joep

2017 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-170404

Digital inter-organisational collaboration in the public sector remains elusive: little is known about when and how efforts for reaching its potential are likely to be successful. Understanding success and failure is one thing that needs to be done to evaluate the effectiveness of public sector information system projects. A highly popular model to conduct such evaluation in the private sector is Delone & McLean's Information System Success Model. This model is often partially tested via quantitative analyses on private sector cases. Yet, this paper tests the entire model, via a mixed methodology on three inter-organisational public sector cases in Flanders in order to verify its explanatory power for the public sector. The quantitative results show that most hypotheses of the Delone & McLean model are valid and applicable to the public sector. Qualitative results reveal that this model ignores the important influence of context factors and provides managers as such only a partial view on the dimensions which contribute to IS success/failure.

Hubbard, Paul; Xiao, Weibing

2017 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-170403

While the scope of freedom of information laws in democratic countries hasbeen reduced through the contracting out and privatization of publicservices, China's national open government regulations retain coverage for``enterprises and entities engaged in sectors closely related to theinterests of the people''. Our review of local implementation and courtcases find that implementation and interpretation of these regulations ispatchy. Outside these public-service sectors, we find a break betweenearlier policies for `openness in factory affairs', which emphasized theworker's right to participate in company decisions, with more recent `openenterprise information', which requires non-listed state-owned enterprise toprovide public financial reports.

2017 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-170402