Inf Syst Front (2017) 19:285–300

(Pannell et al. 2006). Citizens are likely to avoid paying attention to open data if they carry negative perceptions regarding
its usefulness. Consistent with the theoretical principles underlying the DOI model, this study proposes a positive and
significant effect of increased relative advantage on citizens’
intentions to use open data.
H1: Relative advantage is positively related to citizens’
behavioural intentions to use open data

3.1.2 Complexity
Users’ knowhow of a service tends to dictate their perception
of the level of effort involved in using that service. The less
complex a service is to use/operate, the more easily it is accepted (Rogers 2003). The ease of using open data website
will be evaluated from a perspective of optimizing user experience; the design of the interface, time required to look up for
the desired information, understandability of different
features/tabs offered within the website, and any other navigation complexities will be explored using this attribute (page
layout, scrolling and paging, text appearances, links, search
and so on). Existing research shows that difficulties in
accessing open data and failure to update the same data
on a regular basis by the government prevents organizations and people from relying on public sector open
data (Kassen 2013). Presently, open data is mostly
available in the raw data format. According to Martin
(2014), the open data interfaces are not very user friendly,
which fails to attract more number of users. Past research
suggests that users tend to refrain from using a complex
product/service despite being aware of its increased usefulness
(Davis 1989). This creates a huge gap between the data content and its usability for the involved stakeholders and actor
groups (Hunnius et al. 2014).
Since open data is mostly available in the raw format, it is
not readily usable from a citizen’s perspective. Much of this
data varies in its content quality and often requires different
layers of filtering at the legal, technical, and other levels before
it becomes usable for citizens and businesses. As a resultant,
most open data is dumped without any defined demarcations,
making it difficult to be identified and traced by the
interested stakeholders (Conradie and Choenni 2014).
It is also important to note that ease of using or
interpreting the available data is exclusive to individual
users, and the skills/understanding required to interpret
open data will be different for different users (Raman 2012;
Martin 2014). Overall, efficient open data platforms and interfaces are expected to enhance citizens’ ability to perform better. Based on the underlying argument, it is thus proposed in
this study that easy to use services tend to positively influence
consumer intentions.

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H2: Reduced complexity is positively related to citizens’
behavioural intentions to use open data.

3.1.3 Compatibility
In terms of compatibility, the website offering open data and
the open data itself will be assessed for the type of information
it offers to the citizens with respect to the type of information
the citizens are interested in, or are expecting to access using
such open data platforms. Rogers (2003) describes compatibility to be the degree with which the introduced innovation
manifests itself as being consistent with users’ past experiences, present values, and their future needs. It has often been
recognized as an important predictor of consumers’ use intentions (Putzer and Park 2010). Compatibility is proposed
to measure the open data usability amongst citizens.
This attribute has found its application across various
innovation-adoption studies (Nakata and Weidner 2012; Lin
2011; Kapoor et al. 2013). According to Ilie et al. (2005), a
higher level of compatibility prevailing over individual preferences and the technological innovation being considered is
greatly preferred, since it enhances the probability of
interpreting the innovation in question in a more familiar
context.
In their research, Behkamal et al. (2014) found that public
sector open data is sometimes mapped with incorrect values,
questioning the credibility and quality of the data being made
publicly available. At the same time, such data fails to cater to
the information needs that an individual might be interested in,
putting in question the compatibility of the data being opened
to public. To measure how well the available information suffices with the information needs of a user, the compatibility of
open data has been hypothesized as follows,
H3: Compatibility is positively related to citizens’ behavioural intentions to use open data.

3.1.4 Observability
Monitoring of a system encourages peer discussions of that
system, which collectively contributes towards achieving a
better acceptance rate for that system (Rogers 2003). Rogers
(2003) describes observability as the degree to which the outcomes of using an innovation become visible to others. Thus,
the observability construct will be used in this study to help
identify the awareness that the citizens have about the existence of such open data platforms that they can utilize for their
benefit on a daily basis.
H4: Observability is positively related to citizens’ behavioural intentions to use open data.

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