Behavioral factors influencing the opening of government data by civil servants: Initial findings from the literature

Fernando Kleiman, Sebastiaan Meijer, Marijn Janssen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
30 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The actual opening of government data is done by civil servants operating within their institutional environment. As such, the institutional environment and their behavior towards the opening of data is key to increase the quality and quantity of open data. However, few studies have analyzed the behavior of government professionals towards open data policy. The objective of this paper is to review the existing literature to find the factors that influences civil servants behaviors towards open data. To identify the drivers and barriers, a literature review was performed listing the most cited papers with "open government data"and "barriers"focusing specific at the behavioral related factors. Even with the increasing of research on the topic of open data, still most of the papers focus on user drivers and barriers rather than on provider challenges. Even less studies focus on the civil servants' individual level of factors influencing their support to the release of governmental data. Most barriers found in the literature are related to infrastructural or technical issues. Whereas some individual level behavioral barriers could be found, including culture, lack of individual incentives and misunderstanding the impact of opening data, broader discussions on social norms, lack of education and experience are still missing in the literature. This paper contributes to the need for deeper understanding of the behavioral factors that influences the civil servants to support the opening of data.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 13th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, ICEGOV 2020
EditorsYannis Charalabidis, Maria Alexandra Cunha, Demetrios Sarantis
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages529-534
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781450376747
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Event13th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, ICEGOV 2020 - Virtual, Online, Greece
Duration: 23 Sept 202025 Sept 2020

Publication series

NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference13th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance, ICEGOV 2020
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityVirtual, Online
Period23/09/2025/09/20

Keywords

  • Behavioral Barriers
  • Decision-Making
  • Open Data Policy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Behavioral factors influencing the opening of government data by civil servants: Initial findings from the literature'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this