Factors in the adoption of open government initiatives in Spanish local governments

Abstract

The Open Government Data (OGD) projects have spread rapidly in recent years, given that they involve a great transformative potential, whose aims to guarantee transparent government and stimulate the participation and citizenry engagement. It seems that there is a lack of studies analysing factors regarding both the access to OG projects and the volume and format of data published into OGD projects. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify main factors affecting both the way of accessing the OG projects and the volume and format of data published into OGD projects in larger Spanish municipalities (with >50,000 inhabitants and a sample of 145 municipalities). Our main findings seem to point out the intention of sample governments to increase their information disclosure as a way for enhancing their reputation or government's image introducing OGDPs initiatives. Also, it revels differences among analysed municipalities regarding the context in which the information is disclosed.