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How can companies benefit from Open Government Data? Mohammad Mustafa´s master thesis in fulfillment of the Degree Master of Business Administration in New Media Technology and Management at the Modul University Vienna is addressing this question. He was so kind to allow the publication of his thesis on open3.at – many thanks! You can download the pdf here.

Abstract:

Open Government Data was born in an initiative in 2009 towards greater democracy with the main objectives of increasing transparency, participation, and collaboration. Since its early days of development OGD has become a topic of high priority in the agendas of many political and economic settings. Many stakeholders greatly estimate the potential for OGD to become a key driver within firms in addition to the possible business models which can be created on the basis of OGD.

This study has been guided with a conceptual framework in which three distinct structures were introduced as the pillars of the research hypotheses. The central problem of the research focuses on how companies could benefit from OGD, which of the datasets have the greatest potential in terms of adding value, and which strategies firms might follow.

The study adopted a pragmatic mixed-method approach in collecting primary data through indepth, face-to-face interviews, which are complemented with secondary data from an online survey and participant observation.

This study shows that OGD supports the short-term and long-terms decisions within a firm. Another finding demonstrates how OGD enables business models which are innovation driven and have a high level of attractiveness within industry. The third finding is that OGD can serve as a real driver for a firm in gaining a competitive advantage.

KEYWORDS: OGD, economic theory, competitive analysis, expert interviews, online survey, and business implications.