Data sharing in small and medium US cities: The role of community characteristics

Abstract

This research investigates whether political, social and economic characteristics of local communities are related to data sharing between city departments and businesses and nonprofit organizations. Research about data sharing typically emphasizes managerial, organizational and technological factors in departments, largely neglecting community characteristics. The willingness to share data depends on the relationships between the government and external stakeholders, and these relationships are shaped by the political, social and economic characteristics of local communities. Using data from a 2016 survey of 2,500 department heads in 500 US cities with populations between 25,000 and 250,000, we find that data sharing increases in cities where communities are politically engaged, hold Democratic preferences, and there are higher rates of public sector employment and economic inequality. Data sharing is less likely to occur in communities with higher education and more nonprofit associations.

When Local Governments Request Access to Data: Power and Coordination Mechanisms across Stakeholders

“…By contrast, I find that nongovernmental organizations’ influence increases access to data. Nongovernmental stakeholders' influence might be associated with greater advocacy activities and cross‐sector collaboration (Fusi and Feeney 2020; Koppenjan and Klijn 2004), both of which require stakeholders to provide data to city departments to support shared activities and policy proposals. RDT also suggests that nongovernmental organizations might grant access to data in exchange for other resources (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978), such as government support or social capital (Koppenjan and Klijn 2004).…”

“…Moreover, this study finds that both formal routinized and nonroutinized coordination mechanisms do not moderate nongovernmental stakeholders’ influence , while informal coordination is a negative moderator and decreases access to data. These findings leave an open question on what public organizations can do to increase access to data from nongovernmental organizations, especially as prior work mostly focuses on data sharing among public organizations only (Fusi and Feeney 2020; Meijer 2018). Results from the control variables included in the analysis suggest that technological tools and legal requirements might be important antecedents of data access from nongovernmental organizations, which should be further explored.…”

“…Meijer (2018) suggests that power relationships negatively affect the exchange of data between the government and private companies. Similarly, Fusi and Feeney (2020) find that communities with greater influence (e.g., more associations and greater civic engagement) less frequently share data with their city government. Based on this evidence, I expect that:…”

“…Prior research finds that access to data is influenced by several factors, from legal requirements (Bellamy et al 2007) and community characteristics (Fusi and Feeney 2020) to organizational culture and leadership (Gil‐Garcia and Sayogo 2016; Grimmelikhuijsen and Feeney 2016), attitudes and commitment of participants (Nedović‐Budić and Pinto 2000), and technological capacity (Dawes 1996). More recently, researchers suggest that power relationships might critically shape access to data (Meijer 2018).…”

“…Results make three contributions to scholarship on data access and sharing. First, prior research mainly focuses on collaborative initiatives, reciprocal exchange of data, and citizen requests (Chen and Lee 2018; Gil‐Garcia and Sayogo 2016; Susha, Janssen, and Verhulst 2017); only a few studies examine data access in unilateral relationships where public organizations are the ones requesting data (Fusi and Feeney 2020; Ki, Kwak, and Song 2020). This gap is significant as data are a critical input for policymaking and service delivery.…”