Open government data adoption model for public sector organizations in Pakistan

Abstract

Open government data (OGD) is an integral part of open government policies and is referred to as making any public sector data and information available in formats and ways that enable free access, use and distribution and facilitate exploitation. OGD bears a pivotal role and a new way of increasing transparency and accountability, counteracting corruption, stimulating innovation and economic growth, facilitating participation and collaboration and improving services. Further, it is vital means of achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Despite these motivations, there is very limited OGD among public sector organizations in Pakistan which is affected by several technological, organizational, and environmental factors. Besides, the lack of a theoretical model for determining OGD adoption in Pakistan‘s public sector is recognized as the main gap. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to develop and test the OGD adoption model for public sector organizations in Pakistan. A quantitative research method was adopted to accomplish the primary research objective. The data from 249 decision-makers of public sector organizations were collected through a survey method using judgment sampling, a purposive sampling technique. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics in SPSS 25.0 and regression in Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS (version 3.3.3). Results revealed that data resource, dataset quality, perceived benefits, data-driven culture, digitization capacity, need for transparency, compliance pressure, and civil society participation were the factors that influence OGD adoption intention. Further, the organization‘s OGD adoption intention leads to influence the OGD adoption positively. However, centralization did not influence the intention to adopt the OGD of public sector organizations in Pakistan. The total variance of 59.1% is explained by various factors for adoption intention, whereas 61% variance is explained by adoption intention for OGD adoption. Theoretically, this study validates the TOE (technology, organization, environment) framework in the context of OGD adoption with adoption intention as a significant positive factor of OGD adoption. Practically, the study suggests considering data resources, dataset quality, perceived benefits, need for transparency, and compliance pressure by the government, policy practitioners, and public sector organizations for increasing adoption of OGD on a large scale among public sector organizations in Pakistan. Future studies should conduct multi-group analysis on different demographic characteristics like crises and emergencies (COVID-19), organization size, and officers appointed for OGD tasks in organizations and organizations that have e- government/OGD platforms or not. Further, future scholars should investigate the inter- relationships between technological, organizational, and environmental factors.