Public data primacy: the changing landscape of public service delivery as big data gets bigger

Abstract

The growth and expansion of “Big Data” is fundamentally changing public service delivery. Big Data is getting “bigger,” and public organizations will have new opportunities to cultivate and challenges to address. To understand the effects of the growth of data on public organizations, we introduce the Public Data Primacy (PDP) theoretical framework, which builds on existing scholarship through four propositions about data, technology, and its use in the public sector. The framework posits that public sector work will become increasingly data-centric as data continues to get “bigger.” Ultimately, the PDP leads to two predictions about the public sector. First, we predict that the primacy of data in the delivery of public services is inevitable. Second, this forthcoming reality will require public servants to adopt new models of public service oriented around data. The PDP theoretical framework provides a systematic lens in which public administration scholarship can evaluate the future of data growth and its impacts upon public service delivery.