Effects of Predictors of Citizens' Attitudes and Intention to Use Open Government Data and Government 2.0

Highlights

• In Brazil, public value creation from open and 2.0 governments might be under threat!

• Brazilian citizens are not empowered enough to social control through open data

• Public managers and politicians need to address deficits to stimulate the citizens

• Also, address politicians' job performance improvement and less restrictive law

• Education, income and region influence ease of use and usefulness of open data

Abstract

This research proposes a holistic and integrative theoretical model to discuss the effects of eight predictors of citizens' attitudes towards open government and Government 2.0, and whether these attitudes influence their intention to use open government data in Brazil, one of the founding countries of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Findings show the effects of six predictors of citizens' attitudes towards open government and government 2.0. In essence, these predictors are ease of use, usefulness, intrinsic motivation, political satisfaction, government trust, and intensity of internet use. This study also indicates that education, income, and region influence the ease of use and usefulness of open data. These findings also mean that public managers and political parties still have “homework’ to do to stimulate citizens' behavior towards open government and government 2.0. These initiatives encompass the government portals quality and data transparency improvement through less restrictive laws. Also, improve politicians' job performance.

Introduction

Therefore, academic and professional scenarios have faced new research questions and new challenges due to the combination of e-government with the continuous advance of technology (Wirtz & Daiser, 2018). Similarly, the emergence of further information and communication technologies has led to innovations in the democratic process based on the transparency of government actions, citizens' political participation, and collaboration between governments and citizens (Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017a, Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017b). These three aspects constitute the principles of open government (Chun, Shulman, Sandoval, & Hovy, 2010; Lee & Kwak, 2012), gaining attention from the public and the scientific community (Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017a, Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017b) and popularity in the political landscape (Meijer, Curtin, & Hillebrandt, 2012).

Open government is ‘the extent to which external actors can monitor and influence government processes through access to government information and decision-making arenas’ (Grimmelikhuijsen & Feeney, 2016, p. 4). It is a concept that relates access to government information to the public's view and access to decision-making areas to the public's voice (Meijer et al., 2012). Open government is an innovation arising from the electronic government concept but with a higher focus on information (Abu-Shanab, 2015). In this context, innovative resources contribute to the e-government system. For instance, online communities and social networks, which are part of a new Web 2.0, inserted in the public area, became known as government 2.0. This innovative approach enables governments to assess their duty in society and their relationship with citizens (Anttiroiko, 2010).

Thus, ‘open Government and Government 2.0 seem to be, respectively, the new ends and new means of e-government’ (Nam, 2012, p. 347). In this sense, open government as a political attitude or process manifests itself through open government data (Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017a, Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017b). In this research, we follow the concept of Janssen, Charalabidis and Zuiderwijk (2012, p. 258), which open data ‘as non-privacy-restricted and non-confidential data which is produced with public money and is made available without any restrictions on its usage or distribution’. Open data trigger more participation and engagement with government and represents a materialized example of open government's central values (Susha, Zuiderwijk, Janssen, & Grönlund, 2015).

Given the configuration of attitudes and intentions as antecedents of actual behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2005), this study proposes a more holistic and integrative theoretical model to discuss, in Brazil, the effects of predictors of citizens' attitudes towards open government and the Government 2.0, furthermore, whether these attitudes influence their intention to use open government data. In particular, eight predictors – ease of use, usefulness, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, internet competence, political satisfaction, trust in government and intensity of internet use.

Several studies have already shown some factors that may impact ‘citizens’ attitudes towards e-government and open government and their intention to use open government data. Factors such as perceived ease of use (Sipior, Ward, & Connolly, 2011; Wang & Lo, 2013); motivation (Hutter, Füller, & Koch, 2011; Purwanto, Zuiderwijk, & Janssen, 2018) and trust in government (Horsburgh, Goldfinch, & Gauld, 2011; Nam, 2012).

However, open government research is still in its embryonic state (Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017a, Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017b) since the use of open data is still recent, requiring a more significant political and social maturity (Cunha et al., 2015). As there are recommendations to understand this issue in other countries (Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017a, Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017b), it is appropriate to conduct this research, particularly in Brazil, one of the founding countries of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). This initiative was launched in September 2011 by eight countries (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States) committed to making their governments more open and accountable to their citizens (OGP – Open Government Partnership, 2018). The current Brazilian political context, in part due to the crisis caused by the denunciation of corrupt acts from 2015 (Gohn, 2016) and the expected reduction of corruption as one of the benefits of open government (Meijer et al., 2012), corroborates the relevance of this research.

Moreover, as for citizens' attitudes, there is a need for more empirical research (Nam, 2012; Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017a, Wirtz, Weyerer and Rösch, 2017b). There are gaps in whether citizens who are dissatisfied with the current political situation are willing to contribute to open government initiatives (Wijnhoven, Ehrenhard, & Kuhn, 2015). Finally, most national studies on e-government use qualitative methods, with themes related to history, evolution and characteristics, accountability, internet purchases and open government data (Barbosa, 2017), with no quantitative approaches such as the proposal of this research.

The main research contribution is to show the effects of primary predictors already considered in the international literature in the attitudes and intention to use open government in a more holistic and integrative theoretical model, in Brazil, one of the founding countries of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) initiative. The countries that founded this initiative – Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States – have different social, political, economic and cultural contexts. Therefore, the predictors' effects are not necessarily the same among these countries due to their idiosyncrasies. Also, Brazil is one of the leading economies worldwide, the largest economy in Latin American. Therefore, it is necessary to understand this public administration phenomenon, especially nowadays, considering the pandemic Covid-19. According to World Health Organization (2021), Brazil occupies the second position for confirmed cases (11,603,535) and deaths (282,17). The data are from the open data from the states.