Abstract
There is a lack of research concerning the factors influencing the success or failure of open data initiatives. Based on the results of two workshops, we provide a list of 47 success factors for open data publication and 18 success factors for open data use. We further use three case studies (ENGAGE, Open NY, and Open Vienna) to examine how the criticality of factors varies depending on the geographical level and other characteristics of the open data initiative. The cases, representing open data initiatives at city, regional and transnational levels, point at different categories of critical success factors. Our key conclusions are that 1) the criticality of the factors depends considerably on the context of the open data initiative; 2) a number of success factors appear to be more universally applicable than others; 3) the factors that are critical to all three cases are derived from many different success factor categories, which suggests that open data initiatives should adopt an interdisciplinary approach, and 4) further work is needed to detail the success factors for open data publication and use in other contexts.
Highlights
The Critical Success Factor (CSF) approach has been extensively used in the Information Systems discipline to study success of project implementations
To contribute to research on context-dependent open data success factors, this paper aims to answer the following question: Which factors are critical for the publication and use of open data in particular practical cases? This paper first obtains a broad overview of open data success factors, and secondly specifies which factors from the broad overview are critical in particular contexts
The open data initiatives that we studied were selected based on diversity, and they focused on different geographical levels, namely on city, regional and transnational level
Summary
The Critical Success Factor (CSF) approach has been extensively used in the Information Systems discipline to study success of project implementations. A successful open data initiative is one in which data supply stimulates use and generates value. While many open data initiatives have been set up in the last few years, the success of these initiatives cannot be guaranteed. Many authors have pointed at the impediments of open data initiatives that may block the derivation of value from the publication and use of open data (e.g., Barry & Bannister, 2014; Conradie & Choenni, 2014; Janssen, 2011). Various researchers have described factors which are important to make open data initiatives successful (e.g., Parycek, Höchtl, & Ginner, 2014; Zuiderwijk, Janssen, Choenni, & Meijer, 2014). What is perceived as successful depends on the context of the initiative
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