Extending the Understanding of Citizens' Acceptance and Use of Open Government Data for Public Health in Korea

Abstract

Open government data (OGD) policies and practices have been used as one of the most eminent and important tool for sustainable development with a far reaching impact on economic growth, transparent and inclusive society, and participatory, deliberative and collaborative governance. Yet, OGD by itself is never a panacea. As a tool for sustainable development, OGD should be combined with citizen's participation in OGD initiatives towards the common good. Put simply, citizens must deploy and harness OGD services to the local, national and global objectives with strong economic and social purposes. In this respect, the current study examines the relationships of the antecedents and consequences based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) embracing more citizen-centric constructs and enables us to explore the factors influencing citizens’ perceptions, attitudes and intentions to adopt and use OGD services. As the literature on OGD initiatives around the world is rapidly evolving, this study tangibilizes innovation and transformation strategies that enhance the benefits of OGD as a tool for sustainable development by empirically examining the relationships of concepts, constructs and variables that can explain the adoption and use OGD services. To this end, by employing a cross-sectional web-survey, the present study was administered in the context of public health and safety OGD in Korea which has been in the highest position of the global rankings of OGD. After structural equation modeling was undertaken to test hypotheses, a positive relationship among digital literacy and trust in government information was found to be significant, which in turn was associated with behavioral intention to adopt and use OGD services. More specifically, results of this study reveal that digital literacy might play a pivotal role in leading to greater levels of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions as attributes or values of OGD that can increase the likelihood of OGD adoption and use. As argued in this article, the effects of more efficient OGD utilization in accelerating achievement of sustainable development can be drawn from greater citizens' digital literacy and trust in government.