Systemic change, open data ecosystem performance improvements, and empirical insights from Estonia: A country-level action research study

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how Estonia used action research and systems theory to improve the performance their Open Government Data (OGD) ecosystem. This paper understands performance of OGD ecosystems of as consisting of three parts: 1) OGD supply, 2) OGD usage, 3) communication, interaction, and linkages between OGD suppliers and users. It was believed that by taking a holistic approach, encouraging transparency and co-creation, and manipulating feedback loops it was possible to improve the performance of the ecosystem. The research uses and validates previous research on open government data ecosystems and by doing so also achieved increased levels of performance in Estonia’s OGD ecosystem. The paper’s main contributions are the creation of a framework based on systems theory, systems thinking, and action research for enacting strategic change in OGD ecosystems, conceptualizing feedback loops as a core part of OGD ecosystems, and the conceptualization of performance in OGD ecosystems. The paper concludes by offering nine core insights related to OGD ecosystems and their performance.