A Systematic Review of Intra-organizational Factors Affecting Open Government Data to Achieve Innovation in Government Services

Government data contains a large amount of valuable data that can be exploited in various fields if opened. Utilizing open government data, in addition to providing the opportunity to monitor government performance and to create transparency and justice, has another very important function. It helps with developing innovation and the issue has recently been considered by many researchers. However, past research has inconsistently examined the intra-organizational factors influencing open government data to achieve innovation. The present study seeks to identify the intra-organizational factors affecting open government data to achieve innovation in government services through applying the systematic meta-combination method.

In this research, to identify the intra-organizational factors affecting open government data, the systematic meta-synthesis method was used. For this purpose, 888 related articles based on title, abstract and content were filtered and 51 final articles were obtained.

 Based on the results obtained from the theme analysis method, four main categories including technological, managerial, human, and governance dimensions were distinguished. Also, 13 sub-categories including infrastructure, application systems, data, structural, process, strategic, economic, individual, organizational communication, organizational culture, policy, legal, and governance data were extracted which includes 101 concepts and 479 final codes.

The results of this study, contrary to the initial expectations, proved hard technological factors as the least important and other factors, including data, structural and legal factors, respectively as the most important. Thus, in data policies, first, it’s necessary to access data and consider the data quality. In structural policies, it is necessary to pay attention to how to mobilize resources and facilities. In strategic policies, how to interact with stakeholders is vital to be explained. Based on the findings of this research, the internal organizational factors affecting the formation of innovation based on open government data were classified into four main categories for better policy-making. In the category of technology, it is necessary to consider the technical and technological principles of open data from the aspect of required infrastructure, application systems, and data sources. In the management category, it is necessary to pay attention to structural and process requirements along with strategic and economic aspects. In the human category that examines the soft aspects, it is necessary to pay attention to the issue of open data from individual perspectives, communication, and organizational culture. In the category of governance, policy aspects, organizational rules, and factors related to data governance need to be considered with the aim of achieving innovation from open government data. Therefore, the present study initially tried to provide a comprehensive framework for policy-making in government institutions by interpreting and presenting a new category of internal factors. Secondly, it sought to smooth the path of future research to expand and spread innovation based on open data.