Factors influencing the intention to use open government data (OGD) among academics in Malaysian public universities

Abstract

Open Government Data (OGD) is a very effective approach for governments in many countries to share their data to the citizens. Many governments have taken their initiatives to develop their own platform to share and provide a free-access to their data. Despite the platform is ready to be accessed, with numbers of datasets can be accessed freely, the level of usage of the OGD is still unanswered. It is essential to study the behavioral intention to use OGD to ensure the transparency, accountability and trust towards the government. Therefore, this research aimed to fill the gap in literature of acceptance and the quality factors of OGD that influence the intention to use from the academic staff perspectives. The purposive sampling technique was employed, and 389 data was successfully analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) - SmartPLS. The result established that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and trust to OGD website have significant relationship towards the behavioral intention to use the OGD. In addition, information quality plays a big role in indicating the trust to OGD website. For the mediating results, it is proven that trust to OGD website mediates the relationship between trust to government and behavioral intention, and trust to technology and behavioral intention to use OGD. Identifying the factors that influence the intention to use and the use of OGD may contribute to the practicality of open government data implementation especially in Malaysia. The factors such as quality, acceptance and trust can give an extensive clue for the government to indicate the level of OGD usage in the country. The findings of this empirical study then could assist the federal, state and local governments, in preparing their respective organizations in the open data publication. In line with the National Agenda towards a Digital Malaysia, this study could ensure that the open government data Malaysia benefits the citizens in various ways.