Open data initiatives represent a critical pillar of smart cities’ strategies but remain insufficiently and poorly understood. This paper aims to advance a conceptualization of…
Abstract
Purpose
Open data initiatives represent a critical pillar of smart cities’ strategies but remain insufficiently and poorly understood. This paper aims to advance a conceptualization of citizen participation and investigates its effect on open data use at the municipal level.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on 14 semi-structured interviews with citizens involved in open data projects within the city of Montréal (Canada), the paper develops a research model linking the multidimensional construct of citizen participation with initial use of open data in municipalities.
Findings
The study shows that citizen participation is a key contributor to the use of open data through four distinct categories of participation, namely, hands-on activities, greater responsibility, better communication and improved relations between citizens and the open data portal development team. While electronic government research often views open data implementation as a top-down project, the current study demonstrates that citizens are central to the success of open data initiatives and shows how their role can be effectively leveraged across various dimensions of participation.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a conceptualization of citizen participation on open data use at the municipal level. Citizen participation is a found to be a key contributor to the use of open data through four distinct categories of participation, namely, hands-on activities, greater responsibility, better communication and improved relations between citizens and the open data portal development team. This paper demonstrates the critical role of citizen participation in open government.
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Hongyi Mao, Yeming Gong and Ryad Titah
The system of information technology (IT)-oriented resources and processes that organizations need to develop to achieve operational agility remains unclear. The study research…
Abstract
Purpose
The system of information technology (IT)-oriented resources and processes that organizations need to develop to achieve operational agility remains unclear. The study research seeks to extend existing competency literature by incorporating the unique contextual nuances of the relationship between IT capabilities and operational agility.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a multi-method approach, this paper presents a theoretical framework of IT-enabled operations strategy that conceptualizes the role of IT capability in leveraging resources and processes for operational agility. Drawing on operations and information systems research, the authors advance that IT enables operational agility through two dimensions. From the perspective of a resource-based operations strategy, the authors explore the role of IT in resource-leveraging activities by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IT infrastructure and IT reconfiguration. From the perspective of a process-oriented operations strategy, the authors explore the role of IT in process-enhancing activities by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IT coordination and IT integration.
Findings
The study results, based on a sample of 113 organizations in Europe, Asia and North America, show that the interaction between IT infrastructure and IT reconfiguration positively influences operational agility, hence showing complementarity between the two constructs, while the interaction between IT coordination and IT integration negatively affects operational agility, hence indicating substitutability between the two constructs. A series of 62 interviews and a case study of Carrefour were further conducted to validate the field survey's results and to provide a finer grained explanation of the research model and quantitative findings.
Originality/value
The study findings offer an alternative explanation of the inconsistent relationship between IT capability and operational agility.
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Marlei Pozzebon, Ryad Titah and Alain Pinsonneault
Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric…
Abstract
Purpose
Proposes the concept of rhetorical closure to address the phenomenon of pervasive IT “fashions”. Suggests that prevailing discourses surrounding IT are dominated by the rhetoric of closure and that such closure, although mutually constructed by suppliers, consultants and managers, has had several adverse consequences in terms of organizational change and results. Stimulates a critical thinking regarding the persistence of successive waves of new IT fashions and the consequences of closure on practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical framework informed by political views within the social shaping school combined with Habermas' theory of communicative action. Illustration of the argument is based on 22 semi‐structured interviews (senior practitioners from client‐firms, software suppliers and consulting‐firms working on ERP projects).
Findings
Outlines the nature of the “chain reaction” produced by rhetorical closure from individual practices to the segment level. Identifies occasions for breaking down rhetorical closure at the three levels of analysis. At the individual level, opportunities are related to daily users' practices. At the organizational level, opportunities are related to ongoing organizational decisions and negotiations regarding IT adoption. At the segment level, opportunities are related to forming coalitions, networks and groups of users.
Originality/value
Adopts an original perspective, examining the concept of rhetorical closure from a combination of two approaches: social shaping of technology and communicative action theory. Connects different types of closure to different types of rationality, and recognizes the specific validity claims underlying them. Calls into question current decision‐making processes that sustain IT pervasiveness and taken‐for‐granted assumptions of inevitability associated with new IT fashions.
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Marijn Janssen, Ricardo Matheus, Justin Longo and Vishanth Weerakkody
Many governments are working toward a vision of government-wide transformation that strives to achieve an open, transparent and accountable government while providing responsive…
Abstract
Purpose
Many governments are working toward a vision of government-wide transformation that strives to achieve an open, transparent and accountable government while providing responsive services. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of transparency-by-design to advance open government.
Design/methodology/approach
The opening of data, the deployment of tools and instruments to engage the public, collaboration among public organizations and between governments and the public are important drivers for open government. The authors review transparency-by-design concepts.
Findings
To successfully achieve open government, fundamental changes in practice and new research on governments as open systems are needed. In particular, the creation of “transparency-by-design” is a key aspect in which transparency is a key system development requirement, and the systems ensure that data are disclosed to the public for creating transparency.
Research limitations/implications
Although transparency-by-design is an intuitive concept, more research is needed in what constitutes information and communication technology-mediated transparency and how it can be realized.
Practical implications
Governments should embrace transparency-by-design to open more data sets and come closer to achieving open government.
Originality/value
Transparency-by-design is a new concept that has not given any attention yet in the literature.
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Lynette Kvasny and Helen Richardson
The purpose of this article is to reflect on the development of critical research in information systems and give an overview of the papers chosen for this special issue.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to reflect on the development of critical research in information systems and give an overview of the papers chosen for this special issue.
Design/methodology/approach
To set the scene by discussing the origins and the developing field of critical research in information systems and to analyse each paper, suggesting ways in which it relates to the chosen themes.
Findings
The papers chosen address theoretical foundations, paradigmatic and methodological issues, empirical studies and praxis and reflexivity in critical information systems research.
Originality/value
Highlights the growing interest in critical research in the information systems discipline and enables reflection on the difficulties, barriers and opportunities for development.