To Use or Not to Use? Exploring the Factors Influencing Professional Reusers’ Intention to Adopt and Utilize Governmental Open Data in Taiwan

Abstract

In recent years, open government data has become one of the prevailing policy implementations among government administrations around the world.Researchers maintain that open data providers and users play critical roles in forming a sound open data ecosystem. However, recent studies have found that open data use has not kept up with expectations, with the number of open data applications increasing slowly. Therefore, using a qualitative research approach to focus on professional reusers, this study explores the determinants that influence professional reusers’ intention to use governmental open data. With qualitative empirical data support, the identified determinants include perceived usefulness, perceived effort, external influence, facilitating condition, legislation and license, self-efficacy, and perceived risk. In addition,the determinants are incorporated into the theory of planned behavior to investigate how the determinants act as behavioral, normative, and control beliefs in influencing professional reusers’ intentions. Further, this study discusses related suggestions that can strengthen the sustainability of an open data ecosystem. The discussion and practical implications of this study are expected to provide insights to both practitioners and policymakers for further developing open data policies and enriching the current open data–related literature.

Keywords

• open data
• open government data
• open data use
• open data users
• influential factors
• taiwan