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Over the last three decades, many citizens, civil society organizations, and development partners around the world have insistently called on governments to be more open, transparent, and accountable to citizens and other stakeholders in society concerning the affairs of the state. Citizens and key stakeholders demand public administration systems that are highly transparent, accountable, responsive, participatory, and collaborative with other sectors to design policies and services to meet their concerns and needs (McDermott, 2010; OECD, 2018). Demanding and achieving principles of greater openness, transparency, accountability, and collaboration in government affairs is termed open government. Open government is defined as the publishing or dissemination of public sector or government information in an interoperable and standard format to ensure unconstrained citizens’ rights to access data (Abu-Shanab, 2015). Open government strategies according to OECD (2018) are important to renewing citizen's relationship with the government and its public officials and to repose their confidence as well as trust in government. Open government data is designed to make government data highly accessible and usable by its citizens and the general public and it should drive greater transparency by government, citizens’ engagement, and collaboration (Gascó-Hernández et al., 2018; Harrison et al., 2012). The open government initiative is an important element or portion of the concept of e-government. The open government strategies or initiatives relate to the broader conceptualization of e-government which is basic and more concerned with information development and dissemination (Abu-Shanab, 2015; Abu-Shanab & Osmani, 2019).
E-government is defined as the application of appropriate information and communication technologies (ICTs) to ensure open government and availability of data, information, and communication to all stakeholders (Abu-Shanab, 2015). It is also the use of internet technology as a medium for exchanging information and providing services and transactions with citizens, businesses, and other sectors of government (Kamal, 2009). E-government applications can guarantee that public policies are implemented with a high degree of transparency and accountability, provide quality public services and improve the government’s performance (Abu-Shanab, 2015). E-government can also be a strategic tool to enhance maximum participation of citizens in the political and social development of a country through effective participation, consultation, and empowerment process (Abu-Shanab, 2015; Lee & Huang, 2014). E-government, therefore, became the strategic backbone for the development of the open government principle of openness, accountability, transparency, participation, and collaboration. The important factors for government agencies to undertake to create an open government include the publishing of government information online, improve the quality of government information and create, maintain and institutionalize a culture of open government (McDermott, 2010). Based on that, e-government success is intertwined with open government concepts, where the adoption of such technology and service is influenced greatly by citizens’ perceptions.
The enabling environment created by e-government is an important pillar for the development and diffusion of the ideals of open government through e-government. Greater government openness can be achieved by the dissemination of quality information to citizens through e-government in a transparent, open, accountable, and collaborative manner. While the diffusion of open government principles through e-government services is important for an open government to be considered successful, the adoption and patronage of citizens of e-government services are equally important as well. Hence studies seeking to explore the factors determining the adoption of open government e-government services are of important considerations. Previous studies have shown that open government principles such as transparency, accountability, collaboration, and empowerment are positive determinants of the adoption of e-government websites (Abu-Shanab, 2015).