The emergence of local open government: Investigating participation in online public service monitoring

Present research on open government emphasizes on the integration of externals for enhancing existing public administrative processes and service delivery. When studying collaborative action, we do not know a lot about the... [ view full abstract ]

Present research on open government emphasizes on the integration of externals for enhancing existing public administrative processes and service delivery. When studying collaborative action, we do not know a lot about the motives of external contributors, working together with public entities for the benefit of improving the public good. This study contributes to the understanding of open government platforms by investigating why individuals are willing to actively participate in online public service monitoring.

First, we analyze new ways of public service monitoring and sum up literature to derive factors influencing citizens to actively take part in voluntary collaborative online platforms endeavors. Second, a field study investigates the effect of citizens’ motivation and variables on technology acceptance towards using a platform for reporting local problems. The paper examines the reinforcing and mobilizing effect of participation on individuals’ engagement. We conduct a moderated multiple regression analyses to test our model.

Our results indicate that respondents who feel enjoyment when being engaged in online service monitoring show a higher activity level. Citizens’ interest in public service improvement and perceived benefit from leveraging citizensourcing further explain high platform activity. Perceived ease of use is a significant predictor for users with monitoring experience. Besides, users who have already get engaged in public service monitoring via traditional methods are significantly more active in online city improvement.

Although externals collaborate with local government for their own good reasons, administration can partially influence determinants of platform activity. We consequently conclude with implications for public managers who operate platform and future research opportunities.