296
Table 13

Inf Syst Front (2017) 19:285–300
Frequencies for compatibility

Compatibility

Extremely disagree

Disagree

Slightly disagree

Neutral

Slightly agree

Agree

Extremely agree

CT1

2

16

43

172

136

112

35

CT2

8

57

99

203

89

43

17

CT3

14

30

56

207

117

67

25

Observability is acknowledged to improve with increased
earlier adoption in the users’ social circles, with the impact to
be produced by this being attributed to the so-called bandwagon effect (Abrahamson and Rosenkopf 1997). In measuring
the stereotype perceptions, hypothesis H4 was supported by
the empirical data to show positive and significant effects of
observability on users’ intentions to use open data. According
to Meuter et al. (2005), observability assists in showing positive outputs, which in turn motivates potential adopters to
receive that innovative product/service’s rewards. In this case,
the respondents agreed that they have had the opportunity,
mostly limited, to observe others use and talk about open data,
which has managed to leave a positive mark in their minds
about the usability of open data.
Hypothesis, H5, was seen behaving contrary to the postulated relationship, with risk being declared an unimportant
predictor of intention for this study. This attribute measured
the security concerns of the users in using Government released data. The literature is rich with findings from studies
that show a significant influence of risk on users’ adoption
intentions (Schaupp and Carter 2010); for instance - Taylor
and Strutton (2010) in their meta-analysis on Internet consumer behaviours found that perceived risk had a strong negative
effect on the behavioural intentions. However, in line with our
contrasting findings, Claudia et al. (1994) make a point in their
study stating that despite the existence of perceived risks,
some users choose to overcome fear and adopt/use the product/service. They also suggest that perceptions of risk diminish over time. The same can be argued with this study. People
are well acquainted with the use of ICT. The generations are
well exposed to the idea of using the content available on the
web at their discretion. Increased use of social media and
content published online has the citizens well exposed to the
fact that there can be some misleading/incorrect information
published even across most trusted sites. Individuals have matured in their usage of online content, and probably understand
the extent to which they can allow themselves to rely on open
Table 14

data in their daily decisions; this must have rendered risk a
non-significant attribute for most respondents.
Most open data released by the government is available
in the raw format, which restricts its understandability by
all people. Essentially, this data is mostly usable by experts
with some technical knowledge to interpret and develop
applications, which can be of use to the general public.
Since this questionnaire was circulated across a random
sample of population, there is a very high probability that
these respondents found it difficult to relate with the data,
mostly available in the form of statistics to apply in their
daily lives. Thus, there are chances that most respondents
suffered limited understandability of the raw data, which
might have got them disinterested in open data with them
conveniently overlooking the possible risks involved with
the use of such data. These arguments suggest that respondents have overcome the idea of risk involved in using data
published on the web, hence the non-significance of risk
on their overall behavioral intentions.
Theoretical and practical implications From a theoretical
perspective, the paper has made significant contributions.
Given the significance of open data as a local and central
Government imperative, the conceptualization of potential usefulness of open data from citizens’ perspective offers policy
makers and researchers new insights in moving forward in the
field of public sector open data. Moreover, there is no evidence
in the literature on the existence of a survey instrument or
conceptual model assessing citizens’ intentions towards the
use of public sector open data, making this a normative reference source to test citizens’ perceptions of public sector open
data.
From a practical perspective, the authors have offered a
snapshot of citizens’ perceptions of the usability of open data.
The findings in this study offer UK digital government policy
makers and practitioners some important insights in relation to
what citizens think presently about open data in the UK.

Frequencies for observability

Observability

Extremely disagree

Disagree

Slightly disagree

Neutral

Slightly agree

Agree

Extremely agree

O1
O2
O3

12
21
10

23
62
14

76
71
34

200
201
179

115
78
123

72
57
113

18
26
43

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