An Empirical Study of Open Government Data and its Use by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Canada

Abstract

Little research exists on the use of Open Government Data (OGD) by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). However, a few studies suggest that firms, including SMEs, can benefit from using OGD as a resource to stimulate growth and create value. This dissertation investigates the use of OGD by Canadian SMEs. The proposed research is rooted in the Resource Based View (RBV) framework, which provides a theoretical base to explore the use of OGD by SMEs. An explanatory sequential mixed-method approach was applied, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to address this question. The study findings confirmed that Canadian companies use OGD to varying degrees. The internal capability to source, capture and extract meaningful and usable information from OGD, is one of the keys to generating potential value in terms of new products and services. Theoretically, the study suggests that, although OGD is a free resource available to all competitors, companies can create value through idiosyncratic ways of integrating OGD with internal data and through the internal capabilities they develop related to information processing. The key to distinguishing their OGD based products and services from others in the market lies in the competencies, knowledge and technologies used to process OGD.