Outcomes of open government. Does an online platform improve citizens’ perception of local government?

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-02-2018-0056
• Date: 08 July 2019
• Pages: 489-507
• Published date: 08 July 2019
• Author: Lisa Schmidthuber,Simone Stütz,Dennis Hilgers
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management

Outcomes of open government

Does an online platform improve citizens’

perception of local government?

Lisa Schmidthuber, Simone Stütz and Dennis Hilgers

Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria

Abstract

Purpose –Governments all over the world have implemented citizensourcing initiatives to integrate citizens

into decision-making processes. A more participative decision-making process is associated with an open

government and assumed to benefit public service quality and interactive value creation. The purpose of this

paper is to highlight the outcomes of open government initiatives and ask to what extent open government

participation is related to perceived outcomes of open government.

Design/methodology/approach –Data conducted from a survey among users of a citizensourcing

platform and platform data are used to perform non-parametric analyses and examine the relationship

between platform participation and perceived outcomes of open government.

Findings –The findingsof this paper suggest that activeplatform usage positively relatesto several outcomes

perceived by citizens, such as improved information flow, increased trust in and satisfaction with local

government. In contrast, repetitiveparticipation does not significantlyrelate to users’outcome evaluation.

Practical implications –This study suggests public managers to provide possibilities for citizen participation

and interaction with government such as citizensourcing initiatives. In particular, it recommends promoting

participants’platform activity, as proactive platform participation has positive effects on perceived outcomes of

open government.

Originality/value –Previous literature discussed what it needs to realize a transparent and participatory

government. First empirical studies deal with government institutions’reasons to promote exchange with

citizens, and investigate citizens’motivation to participate in citizensourcing activities, but have disregarded

the consequences of open government so far. This study thus provides first insights into the outcomes of open

government, as perceived by the users.

Keywords Local government, Public management, Open government, Citizensourcing, Public innovation,

Citizen participation

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Citizensourcing has emerged as a significant open government mechanism that enables

public organizations to engage with voluntary citizens via online intermediary platforms

seeking innovative ideas and solutions (Hilgers and Ihl, 2010). Public organizations such

as local governments invite external actors (e.g. citizens, companies, universities) to share

their knowledge, ideas and experiences and aim to benefit from these external knowledge

sources in enhancing service design, service delivery and execut ion, as well as

service monitoring (Linders, 2012). Initial studies provide first evidence of citizensourcing

initiatives and platform-based interaction between citizens and government (Hilgers and Ihl,

2010; Linders, 2012; Criado et al., 2013; Mergel, 2015a; Schmidthuber and Hilgers, 2018).

Empirical research investigates government institutions’reasons to engage in

citizensourcing (Nam, 2012a; Randhawa et al., 2017) and examines citizens’motivation to

share their ideas, experiences and opinions with government online (Abu-Tayeh et al., 2018;

Thapa et al., 2015; Wijnhoven et al., 2015; Schmidthuber et al., 2017). Whereas previous

research has shed light on various types of citizensourcing strategies and the role of actors

involved, we know little about the outcomes of platform-based citizen–government

interactions (e.g. Schmidthuber et al., 2017; Zuiderwijk et al., 2018).

Open governmentinitiatives are suggested to yieldvarious benefits for both governments

and citizens. Potential outcomes of governmental openness and citizensourcing activities are

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 32 No. 5, 2019

pp. 489-507

© Emerald PublishingLimited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-02-2018-0056

Received 23 February 2018

Revised 14 October 2018

Accepted 10 December 2018

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3558.htm

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Outcomes

of open

government

improved trust (Mergel, 2015a), a strengthened relationship between local authorities and

citizens (Lukensmeyer and Torres, 2008; Nam, 2012a), more efficient and effective public

service delivery (Lukensmeyer and Torres, 2008; Hilgers, 2012; Linders,2012; Neshkova and

Guo, 2012) and increased citizen control over public decision-making and policymaking

processes (Lukensmeyer and Torres, 2008; Linders, 2012; Meijer et al., 2012; Mergel and

Desouza, 2013). In sum, previous research gives promising arguments about the value of a

more open and participatory government, relates open governments to societal impact and

assumes that governmental institutions stimulate social innovation by leveraging external

knowledge and ideas for policy formulation or urban planning (Chesbrough and Di Minin,

2014). However, the assumptions that openness actually improves citizen satisfaction and

service quality have not matched by evidence.

Consequently, this study asks:

RQ1. To what extent does open government improve the level of participatory and

democratic policymaking?

In more detail, it is asked to what extent open government participation is related to

perceived outcomes of open government. The study thus aims to explain variation

in perceived outcomes of open government, defined as the consequences that follow from a

citizensourcing project as perceived by participants. In examining the antecedents of

perceived outcomes, we are primarily interested in determining the role of platform

participation as a predictor of perceived outcomes of open government, because we

believe that individual’s extent of participation is likely to be an important determinant

of outcome evaluation. Focusing on open government at the local government level, we

examine the effects of platform-based interactionbyconductingaweb-basedsurvey

among the participants of a citizensourcing platform and questioning the perceived

outcomes of participation. Supplementing these survey data with archival platform

data, we shed light on the determinants of perceived outcomes of open government by

employing multivariate statistical techniques.

Although several authors have highlighted the need for in-depth evaluations of the

outcomes and impacts of online citizen–government interaction (Criado et al., 2013;

De Vries et al., 2016; Voorberg et al., 2015; Medaglia and Zheng, 2017), only few empirical

studies have investigated the degree to which citizens are satisfied with open government

initiatives (Nam, 2012a) or if pursued benefits have been achieved (Zuiderwijk et al., 2018).

Understanding the effects of new participatory and decision-making processes is an

important first step in determining what is behind the success of open forms of

governance and other forms of distributed innovation and development in general.

Furthermore, surveying outcomes perceived by participants is vital, as differences

between public expectations and actual outcomes can decrease citizens’trust in

government (Welch et al., 2005). This study thus takes a citizen-centric perspective and

evaluates the performance of open government.

The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the concept of

open government, outlines the expected benefits of governmental openness and formulates

hypotheses. In Section 3, methods and data used for the analyses are described. Section 4

presents the results of the descriptive and multivariate analyses. Finally, Section 5 discusses

the findings, derives theoretical and managerial implications, outlines limitations of the

study and provides directions for future research.

2. Theoretical background

2.1 Open government

Open governmentis defined as “the extent to which externalactors can monitor and influence

government processes through access to government information and decision-making

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