Citizens’ or Government’s Will? Exploration of Why Indonesia’s Local Governments Adopt Technologies for Open Government

Abstract

Web 2.0 is a technology that enables collaboration between citizens and the government to actualise the concept of open government. The adoption of technology in the public sector is known to have positive impacts in fostering public sector innovation, including in developing countries with various problems that require collaboration between citizens and the government. However, currently studies concerning open government technology adoption in developing countries are limited. Indonesia as an example of a developing and democratic country provides a suitable context to explore this phenomenon. Moreover, there are many local government institutions in Indonesia, especially on Java Island, that have implemented Web 2.0 to support open government initiatives. Therefore, this research aims to explore key factors influencing the adoption of the Web 2.0 platform by local government institutions in Indonesia. Multiple theories are combined to guide the exploration of the influencing factors related to technology, organisations, management, and the environment. Based on a multiple case study involving five local government institutions in Indonesia, we identified fifteen factors affecting the adoption of Web 2.0 technology. This study offers both research and practical implications that can be considered by government and other key stakeholders to optimise public participation and information access through the adoption of open government initiatives.

1. Introduction

Along with the development of Information Technology and the internet, government transparency and information disclosure have received growing attention from academics and practitioners [1]. Open government is one of the initiatives that aims to establish a more transparent government and increase citizen participation in government processes. open government is defined as an effort to provide government information and data in a free format, which can be accessed and explored by the public [2]. Open government enables citizens to monitor and influence government processes through access to government information and access to decision-making arenas [3]. The presence of public participation, transparency, and collaboration among stakeholders are several characteristics of open government [4]. Open government is not limited to information disclosure by the government, but also includes dynamic interaction between government and other related stakeholders to support the government process.

Many countries around the world have implemented open government initiatives. One of the initiators was the United States of America, since the first day of President Barack Obama’s time in office, through their Memorandum of Transparency and open government [5]. The memorandum was a commitment to creating a more transparent, participative, and collaborative government [4]. The instruction was then translated into several programmes by the federal state government in various areas such as healthcare, emergency/disaster management, and public services managed by local government institutions. Together with the United States, other countries have also been inspired to make their governments more open and transparent. Several countries, including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States established an Open Government Partnership (OGP) as an initial step to synergise and actualise open government initiatives around the world.

In general, research concerning the factors influencing technology adoption for open and participative government in developing countries from is still limited, moreover from organizational perspectives. There have been some studies exploring online participation intention from citizen perspectives [6,7]. However, most previous studies exploring open government-related technology adoption factors from government institutions’ perspectives were conducted in developed countries [8,9,10,11,12]. Only one prior piece of research was identified concerning participation platform (social media) adoption in local government conducted in Jordan, as one of the developing countries [13]. In addition, since developing countries have different conditions from developed countries, the research findings from those previous studies may not be readily applicable in a developing country. Lower per-capita income, low levels of human capital, and high poverty levels are some common issues faced by developing countries that require collaboration among stakeholders, including citizens, to tackle the problem.

Indonesia is one of the developing and democratic countries, as well as an OGP member. Thus, it provides a suitable context to explore the adoption of open government technology. Indonesia has developed many programmes to achieve open government goals. The initiative started with establishing Open Government Indonesia (OGI) initiatives supported by formal regulation to drive information disclosure. OGI drives technology utilisation, including Web 2.0, which enables public data or information sharing and collaborative interaction between the government and citizens. Several platforms have been developed by the government, such as Satu Data Indonesia, to disseminate government public data and information that can be accessed freely by the public, and an open interactive aspiration platform called LAPOR was developed by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (KEMENPAN-RB). The government is also utilising social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as one example of Web 2.0 technology, to spread information and receive feedback from citizens. In addition, several government institutions have also adopted a third-party system developed by a private company.

Although the central government has developed many platforms to support open government initiatives, their level of adoption by local government institutions is still limited. Some 33 out of 34 provincial governments, 409 out of 416 regency governments, and 97 out of 98 municipal governments are already connected to LAPOR, the national aspiration system [14]. Unfortunately, the number of connected local government institutions still cannot regularly describe the number of active government institutions using LAPOR. On the other hand, there are just 14 provinces, 25 municipalities, and 36 regencies with an official local government Twitter account that gives information to the public and meets public aspirations. Meanwhile, the number of municipal governments which have adopted Qlue, a third-party aspiration software, is only around 15 % of the total number of municipal governments in Indonesia [15]. These numbers indicate the potential improvement of open government-related technology adoption levels in Indonesia.

Exploring adoption factors in the Indonesian context could help public and private sectors increase the adoption level and spread the benefits of Web 2.0 technology to support open government initiatives around the country specifically and in other developing countries with similar characteristics as Indonesia. Prior study about participative platforms for citizens in Indonesia did not clearly explore the motivations behind the adoption of the technology [16]. Therefore, this study addressed the following research question:

What are the factors affecting the adoption of Web 2.0 open government initiatives in Indonesia from the local government perspective?

This study uses the qualitative approach by involving multiple case studies from five different local government institutions in Indonesia to obtain a comprehensive contextual findings regarding the adoption of open government technology in Indonesia [1,17]. Three different local government types (i.e., provincial, municipality, and regency levels) were involved to describe the current phenomenon of the adoption of Web 2.0 to promote government openness in Indonesia. Furthermore, this study also considers several types of Web 2.0 adoption strategies, namely in-house development, social media adoption, and third party adoption, to extend current understanding about this domain. Several theories were also combined to discover broader perspectives, not only from the perspective of the internal organization/government, but also technological and environmental perspectives. The combination of several theories and some specific to the Indonesian context aims to provide a novel contribution by complementing prior findings and providing more context-specific elaboration of some of the theories applied in this study.

The rest of this paper is organised as follows. Section 2 reviews the relevant literature. The following sections consecutively explain the research framework and research methodology. Section 5 overviews the context used for the case study. Our findings are elaborated in Section 6, followed by a discussion of those findings in the Section 7. Finally, the Section 8 presents the conclusion, implications, and limitations of the study.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Open Government and Web 2.0 Technology

Open government is defined as an effort to make public sector information available in a form that can be accessed freely in an open format and to enable the public to access and explore the information [2,18]. It is also defined as an initiative to make the mechanisms of the administration of the country more transparent with regards to several characteristics, including the presence of government transparency, public participation, and collaboration among related stakeholders [4]. The open government initiative is also associated with conditions whereby the public can monitor and influence the government’s decision-making process [3]. Thus, the availability of information and active public participation can be considered the crucial elements of the open government initiative. The open government initiative is driven by potential benefits such as enhancing transparency, effectivity, innovation, and inclusion [19]. Collaboration between governments and their citizens, one of the impacts of the implementation of open government, can also lead to a better level of democracy [20]. Referring to a systematic literature review by Attard et al. [20], there are four levels of open government implementation impacts for stakeholders. Access to information becomes the direct impact of open government initiatives. The open government policy allows stakeholders to quickly obtain access to any public information provided by the government. Access to information then drives transparency as the next level of impact. The presence of transparency enables social control by the citizens. It also gives an opportunity for the public to provide regular feedback to the government. Therefore, the accountability of the government can be enhanced by providing transparency to the public. In the end, at the top level of impact, open government initiatives can also contribute to building democratic governance [20].

Wijnhoven, Ehrenhard, and Kuhn [3] elaborated on the objectives of open government initiatives from administrative and political perspectives. In the administrative context, the aim is to gather external public knowledge to support the government decision-making process. In addition, it aims to generate public support to execute the administrative activity. On the other hand, from a political perspective the objectives of open government are mainly to create a more collaborative democracy and gain constituency support. As stated in previous studies, the initiative also has positive implementation impacts [20]. The effects can be categorised into economic and social aspects [21]. Economically, open government can create market value through the electronic services provided by the government. From the social perspective, open government initiatives can help the government develop better public policy based on the citizens’ views, which leads to a better quality of life both for the individual citizen and for the community. Information disclosure could enhance supervision by the people and contribute effectively to improving the decision-making process and preventing corruption among government institutions [22]. One of technologies that could enable those objectives is Web 2.0.

Web technology (the World Wide Web) was first described by Tim Berners Lee in 1989. The development of web technology was first driven by the need for the automation of information exchange among scientists in universities and research institutes worldwide [23]. In the last two decades, web technology has developed rapidly [24]. Starting from the first generation of web technology (Web 1.0) in 1989, which is known as the cognitive and static web, web technology subsequently evolved into Web 2.0 which enables collaboration and sharing among users. Web 2.0 was first introduced in 2004 [25] as the second generation of web technology which provides a platform for collaboration, allows interaction, and creates a virtual network [26]. Since it supports dynamic interaction, Web 2.0 is also called a read–write web [27]. Web 2.0 supports several features such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication), mashup, folksonomy, widgets, and other facilities to share information with other users [28]. Social media is one of the most popular Web 2.0-based platforms. The difference between Web 2.0 and the newer generation of the web (Web 3.0) is that Web 3.0 is more focused on data integration and metadata utilisation by intelligent agents (IA).

Along with its growing number of users, the Web 2.0 technology is believed to have an essential role in open government initiatives [29]. Adopting a Web 2.0-based platform in the public sector can support better decision-making processes and facilitate positive interactions between the government, citizens, and other external stakeholders [28]. Government institutions can disseminate the open data through Web 2.0 and obtain data that pertain to public opinions or sentiments towards certain policy. The data obtained from public interaction with Web 2.0 need to be processed further, as they are not available in a structured format. This research focused on data sharing by governments and its interaction with the public or other stakeholders. Therefore, a Web 2.0-based platform was chosen as the relevant technology to cover that aim.

2.2. Technology Adoption Theories

Several theories are commonly used to explain technology adoption drivers, such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the technology–organization–environment (TOE) Framework, UTAUT, and the IS Success Model. However, most of these theories are commonly used to explain adoption on an individual level. Meanwhile, this study set organization as the unit of analysis. According to the prior studies, TOE becomes the most prominent framework for analysing technology adoption at the organizational level. Therefore, this study adopted the Technology, Organisation, and Environment (TOE) framework by Tornatzky and Fleischer [30] as the main theoretical lens. TOE is a theory used by other researchers to learn various technology adoption factors, both in the private and public sectors. TOE is a well-established theory and has been extended by several scholars by adding additional dimension such as managerial dimension [31]. Its maturity and flexibility are the other reasons for this study to employ the theory. TOE could also complement other adoption theoretical frameworks such as Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory and the Institutional Theory (IT). Both theories are useful for extending understanding regarding the technological and environmental dimensions that are already included in TOE. The utilisation of complementary theories is aimed at better understanding the adoption factor of Web 2.0 technology for open government initiatives in local government. TOE is used as the basis to guide the exploration of factors and to categorise the study findings. Each of the theories employed is briefly explained as follows.

2.2.1. TOE Framework

The TOE Framework is a technology adoption model first developed in 1990 [30]. This model classified technology adoption factors at the company/firm level into three main aspects, such as the technology context, organisational context, and environmental context. The technology context mainly classifies factors related to internal and external technologies relevant to the company or institution [32]. Internal technologies include current equipment and practices utilised by the firm, while external refers to the technology available in the marketplace but currently not yet adopted by the company [33]. Organisation context refers to the firm’s characteristics and resources, including linking structures between employees, the internal communication process, firm size, and the number of resources [33]. Environmental context is the arena in which a firm conducts its business, its competitors, and dealings with the government [30,32].

The TOE framework has a solid theoretical basis, consistent empirical support, and potential for application to IS innovation domains, though specific factors identified within the three contexts may vary across different studies [32]. TOE is a general framework that can be used to guide a systematic analysis of the factors influencing the adoption of any technology by individual organisations [34]. TOE was also used in several past studies to identify technology adoption factors in the public sector [1,35]. Other studies also developed the framework by adding a complementary context into the model, such as the managerial context [31]. Managerial context is an extension of the organisational context that covers managerial attitudes towards technology adoption decisions. This study extends TOE framework with the additional managerial dimension to identify and classify adoption factors. Thereby, the organisation context can be used to focus on the characteristics of a firm while the individual and managerial context covers the behaviour of the personnel within the company.

2.2.2. Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory

The Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) is a theory proposed by Rogers [36] to explain and understand the adoption and diffusion of technology and innovation within a company and to predict outcomes for the firm [34]. For Rogers [36], adoption is a decision of “full use of an innovation as the best course of action available,” and rejection is a decision “not to adopt an innovation” (p. 177). Rogers defines diffusion as “the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (p. 5). From this definition, innovation, communication channels, time, and the social system are the four critical components of innovation diffusion [36]. Innovations are not always beneficial and desirable for the adopters. This theory divides potential adopters into five types: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Each of these categories has its characteristics and challenges. Thus, communication channels used within the social system to share information about the innovation and the time required to share the information play an essential role in the technology diffusion process [34]. In addition, the DOI theory also states five key factors that influence technology adoption and diffusion, including relative advantages, complexity, compatibility, trialability, and observability. These factors can be combined with TOE to understand the adoption factors. Past studies have combined the TOE Framework and DOI to explore adoption factors of many technologies such as social media [1,17], Web 2.0 technology [1,35], and open government data [2] in the public sector.

2.2.3. Institutional Theory

The Institutional Theory is another theoretical perspective to explain the technology adoption phenomenon, mainly focusing on the importance of the environmental context on company actions and structures. A company is considered an institution with particular social structures, cultures, rules, and routines embedded within larger institutions, including the supply chains, industry, and country [34]. This theory emphasises that institutions’ actions, structures, and norms can be influenced by the pressure to comply with the environment for the sake of legitimacy. Mimetic, coercive, and normative are three isomorphic mechanisms that are influential for change [37]. Mimetic pressure refers to social pressure, which leads organisations to become isomorphic with their environment, resulting from the standard response to uncertainty, coercive pressure related to political influence and the problem of legitimacy. Finally, normative pressure is associated with professionalism that motivates a company to conform to widely accepted norms and standards within the environment. The Institutional Theory can be used to enrich the environmental context within the TOE Framework. Past studies have used this theory as a complementary factor in the context of the TOE environment. This current study also combines this theory with TOE to better understand the influence of environmental factors with regard to the technology adoption factor in the public sector.

2.3. Overview of Previous Studies

There are several studies concerning open and participative government-related technologies’ adoption.

Table 1. Overview of Previous Studies.

No.	Country	Year	Subject	Object	Research Approach	Theory	Citations
1	China	2017	Government	Web 2.0 (Microblogging)	Qualitative	TOE	[1]
2	China	2017	Government	Social Media	Quantitative	TOE	[39]
3	Saudi Arabia	2016	Government	Social Media	Qualitative	TOE	[35]
4	Australia	2015	Government	Social Media	Qualitative	TOE	[17]
5	Taiwan	2016	Government	Open Government data	Quantitative	TOE	[2]
6	United States	2017	Government	Social Media	Quantitative	Not specified	[40]
7	Jordan	2019	Government	Social Media	Quantitative	UTAUT2	[13]
8	United States	2017	Government	Social Media	Quantitative	Not specified	[8]
9	United States	2018	Government	Open Innovation	Qualitative	Not specified	[9]
10	United States	2019	Government	Fiscal Transparency	Quantitative	TOE	[41]
11	Multiple Countries	2017	Government	e-Participation	Quantitative	TOE	[38]
12	Multiple Countries	2021	Government and Citizen	e-Participation	Quantitative	Multilevel perspective (MLP)	[10]
13	Singapore	2020	Government	Open Government data	Quantitative	Resource Dependent Theory	[12]
14	Multiple Countries	2020	Government	e-Participation	Quantitative	OGP Membership	[42]
15	United States and United Kingdom	2020	Government	e-Petition	Quantitative Experimental	Linguistic and Semantic	[43]

showed fifteen seminal papers in last six years involved in this study to obtain available gaps. The studies were dominantly conducted in developed countries, some comparing multiple countries [10,38], and only a few focused on developing countries [13,35]. This condition provides an obvious gap to enrich the literature with more context in developing countries with different social, political, and economic conditions. These differences may influence both citizen and government needs for technologies that promote openness and transparency. As a developing and democratic country, Indonesia could provide more contextual findings about technology adoption in public sector.

In terms of theory, the past studies employed various technology adoption theories. One of the most commonly used theories to explain open government technology adoption from the government perspective is the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework [1,17,35,38,39,41]. TOE was mainly used due to its ability to explain adoption phenomena via a holistic approach. Most of studies that employ TOE focus on social media adoption for government openness [1,17,35,39]. TOE has not been widely used to explore the adoption of in-house and third-party platforms to implement open government. Other theories, such as UTAUT2, resource dependent theory, and multilevel perspective, were also used in past studies to observe more specific case studies. UTAUT2 is used to explore local government adoption of social media in developing countries [13]. However, this theory did not thoroughly capture the organizational and environmental aspects that influence adoption. Resource dependent theory was used to capture public agency motivation to join open government data movement [12]. Some novel perspectives, such linguistic, semantic, and relationship with OGP partnership, were also included in some studies [42,43] conducted in countries with more mature open government implementation. This study chooses several combined theories including the TOE framework, diffusion of innovation, and Institutional Theory as the theoretical framework since open government initiative for local government in Indonesia is still considerably a new program. Therefore, the study only focusses on some fundamental aspects yet providing more novel context.

Among the fifteen seminal papers, quantitative approach was dominantly used. Quantitative research offers a more generalizable results and provides adequate validity as well as reliability to test some theories. However, this study used a qualitative approach to gain deeper insights as the open government initiative is still new for some local government institutions and no prior studies have considered this adoption phenomenon thoroughly in Indonesia. Although it did not provide a strong statistical proof, qualitative study is suitable for exploratory research that focuses on understanding a phenomenon in detail.

3. Research Framework

Based on the literature review, the TOE Framework is a widely used theoretical framework to understand technology adoption factors at the organizational level. Prior researchers have adopted TOE to identify the adoption factors of various technologies such as social media [17,35,44], master data management [45], enterprise application integration (EAI) [46], and cloud computing [47,48]. Past studies have also used TOE to understand Web 2.0-related technology adoption in government institutions [1,17,35]. This framework is a comprehensive theoretical lens that focuses on the examination of an organisation and its context related to the Technology Adoption [34]. Therefore, the authors have adopted TOE with its extension context and integral theories such as diffusion of innovation (DOI) and Institutional Theory (IT). Both complementary theories have previously been used for qualitative exploratory study of B2B e-commerce platform adoption in Indonesia [34]. These frameworks are used to identify the empirical results concerning Web 2.0-based platform adoption for open government initiatives in Indonesia. Figure 1 shows the research model consisting of fifteen factors that have been categorised into four dimensions, namely technology, organisation, managerial, and environment. These factors were formulated from the literature review process in this study.

3.1. Technology Context

The technology context consists of six factors influencing the propensity to adopt Web 2.0 technology. These factors are related to the attributes of the technology, both external and internal, and are aligned with the definition stated by Tornatzky and Fleischer [30]. The first factor is the perceived benefits related to the advantages gained by the firm. This factor is found in many previous studies [2,17,34,39,49]. Compatibility and complexity are the next factors included in this context. Compatibility refers to the extent to which the newly adopted technology can fit the business process and current technology of the company. Meanwhile, complexity is defined as the degree of difficulty for a firm to implement the innovation. Compatibility, perceived benefits, and complexity are three factors found in the DOI theory, which are combined in this model. Compatibility is known to influence the adoption of social media, as one example of Web 2.0 technology, based on prior research by Sharif [17].

On the other hand, complexity was found to be an issue in previous research concerning technology adoption in the public sector [2] and the private sector [34]. Other factors included in the technology dimension are ICT infrastructure, privacy and security concerns, and perceived risk. ICT infrastructure, which can be found in several studies of Web 2.0 adoption [1,35], refers to the availability of ICT infrastructure supporting the adoption process. Security and privacy concerns mainly discuss issues related to data, information, and network communication security as well as user privacy concerns. The last factor is the perceived risk, which refers to the barriers and risks faced during the adoption process. In line with the DOI theory, adopting innovation involves some risks, and the degree of risk differs from one adopter type to another. Thus, this factor is also included in the model.

3.2. Organisational Context

The organisational context covers factors related to the characteristics of a company influencing the adoption process. Within this context, there are six factors included in this dimension. Policy and regulation is the first factor in this context, which is defined as the government’s formal regulations implemented to support the technology adoption process. This factor also covers relevant policies such as remuneration to catalyse the adoption process. This factor is known to be influential in the public sector, especially for technology adoption decisions to support government transparency [17,50,51]. The degree of formalisation is the next factor in the organisational dimension. In several studies, this factor appears to be similar to policy and regulation since both mainly discuss a factor that regulates the company. In this study, the degree of formalisation is defined as the organisation’s level of formality, which translates into the standard operating procedures (SOP). The adoption of new technology requires a company to be ready and adaptable to maximise the impact of the adopted technology. Therefore, a compatible organizational culture is necessary to ensure that the adoption of the technology runs smoothy. In the context of this study, the organisational culture includes the company’s current attitude to work and its responses to changes resulting from the adoption process. Prior researchers emphasised that the firm’s personnel’s ability to adapt and learn a new technology can encourage the acceptance of new technology within the company [2]. An organisation consists of a group of people with a particular purpose. Thus, technology competence is the next organisational factor that influences Web 2.0 adoption. The competency of staff members to operate newly adopted technology plays an essential role in catalysing the adoption process [1]. The utilisation of Web 2.0, such as social media, requires government personnel to be familiar with the technology in order to optimise its perceived benefits [39]. Government agencies with greater technical competence are likely to enjoy greater readiness to assimilate social media [39,49].

3.3. Managerial Context

The managerial context is an extension of the organisational dimension of the TOE framework. It focuses on the attitude of managers towards the technology adoption process. Three factors included in this category are the support of top management, management drive, and strategic goals. Having the support of the top management is known to be the most influential factor for social media adoption in the public sector [39]. This factor refers to any kind of support given by top management to help with the technology adoption process. This study includes this factor as guidance to explore what kind of support by top management is needed to optimise the adoption process, especially in Indonesia’s local governments. The second factor is managerial innovativeness, which describes the willingness of a manager to adopt new technologies, bring new experiences to the firm and to develop the creative processes that benefit the company and promote organisational performance [31,52]. Managerial innovativeness positively affects the adoption of social networks in the private sector [53].

On the other hand, managerial innovativeness could also lead to uncertainty and increase the risk profile of a company, which in turn decreases the chance of the adoption of new technology [54]. These two different perspectives make the impacts of this factor in the public sector interesting to explore, especially when considering open government initiatives. Finally, strategic goals are the last managerial factor included in the model. A strategic goal is defined as the strategic objectives of a company related to technology adoption initiatives. Previous research indicates that the adoption decision is commonly influenced by the company’s goals [1,35]. Therefore, alignment between the goals of a firm and the impact resulting from the adoption initiatives is an important aspect to maximise the outcome of technology adoption.

3.4. Environmental Context

Past studies in developing countries indicate that environmental factors play a more significant role than technological and organisational factors [34,55]. The environmental dimension in this model focuses on external factors influencing the adoption of technology. The perspective from the Institutional Theory, which suggests the effect of external pressure on the adoption, is also used in this theoretical framework. This study’s environmental factors are citizen/community demand, political and legislative influence, and the bandwagon effect. Since this study focuses on Web 2.0 technology adoption for open government initiatives, the role of citizens as a crucial component of open government cannot be denied. In previous studies, citizen demand has been shown to be one of the factors driving Web 2.0 technology adoption to promote government openness [1,17,35].

The next two factors are adapted from an Institutional Theory perspective, which emphasises the effect of external pressure. The legislative and political influence factors included in the model have a similar definition to coercive pressure as suggested by the institutional theory. It focuses on the influence of the legislative committee and their political objectives. This factor has been found to be influential for Web 2.0 adoption in past research [35,40]. The last factor is the bandwagon effect, which is defined as the tendency of a company to adopt technology because of previous successful implementation of similar technology by other firms. It has a similar concept to mimetic pressure of the Institutional Theory, which explains that a company tends to be isomorphic with the environment because of pressure, both social and peer pressure. This factor is known as a driving factor for government institutions to adopt Web 2.0-based technology [17,35].

4. Research Methodology

This study is an exploratory research project that uses the case study approach [56] to explore the factors influencing the adoption of a Web 2.0-based platform for open government initiatives in Indonesia. A case study research approach enables the authors to conduct an in-depth investigation to understand the phenomenon thoroughly with empirical results. Thus, this method is suitable for exploring Web 2.0 adoption for open government initiatives in Indonesian local government, which is currently lacking in the literature. This study is at the theory-building stage, contributing to the accumulation of knowledge related to Web 2.0 as one of the technologies that support open government initiatives, specifically for developing countries. Multiple case studies are a type of case study approach that is known to be suitable for research at the theory-building stage [56]. This investigation employs multiple case studies to enrich the insights of the findings. The multiple-case study method offers a better analytical result than a single case study [56]. Additionally, a multiple case study contributes to minimizing criticism that could skew the researchers’ ability to perform empirical work beyond a single-case study. These considerations serve as the reason behind selecting a multiple case study as the research approach in this study.

However, as with other qualitative approaches, multiple case study also has weaknesses in providing generalizable results. Therefore, this research also considers triangulation to improve the validity and reliability of the result. Triangulation is a combination of different methods to understand the same phenomenon [57,58]. Denzin [57] elaborated four triangulation types, including data triangulation, investigator triangulation, theory triangulation, and methodological triangulation. Data triangulation entails obtaining data from different sources, or at different times, or under different conditions, but would not include studies where these comprise the independent variable in an experiment [59]. Investigator triangulation refers to the involvement of more than one researcher in performing data collection and analysis. Theory triangulation is related to the utilisation of multiple theories to analyse and interpret experimental results. Finally, methodological triangulation consists of combining multiple methods to gather the data, such as interviews, observations, questionnaires, and documents: this current study primarily used data, methodology, and theory triangulation. Data were obtained from different government institutions, locations, and involved more than one interviewee for each institution. The authors also combined the interview method as the primary method to gather data with document analysis to ensure the validity of the interviewees’ answers. As stated before, this study also embodied several theories as guidance for exploration.

Sequentially, this study consists of seven steps to find the factors influencing the adoption of technology, including problem definition, literature study, model development, model evaluation, data collection, data analysis, and finding a conclusion. A literature study is conducted for two objectives: to identify gaps in current knowledge, state the problem definition, and develop the theoretical research framework. Several journal databases, including Scopus, Elsevier, Wiley Online, and IEEE Xplore were used for these purposes. The formalised research framework was then evaluated using the expert judgment method. Three experts in the e-government field were interviewed to give feedback, suggest removing irrelevant factors in the model, and further explore any missing factors in the framework. The feedback from the experts was used as the foundation to modify and improve the theoretical framework. The research framework is not an artifact to be confirmed; instead, it is a research proposition to guide the process of collecting and analysing the case study data. This study selected five government institutions as the sample for this study. The five institutions were selected using purposive sampling. Table 1 lists the institutions involved in this study. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview with open-ended questions for the government officers from local government institutions involved in Web 2.0 adoption initiatives or the open government movement. The interviews were recorded and converted into a verbatim transcript to be analysed using a methodology proposed by Miles and Hubberman [60], which divided the qualitative data analysis process into three main steps: data condensation, data display, and data interpretation. These steps were not necessarily sequential. Miles and Hubberman [60] suggested an interactive model for qualitative data analysis. It implies that this could be a continuous and iterative process.

Data condensation refers to the process of selecting, focusing, simplifying, abstracting, and/or transforming the data that appear in the full corpus (body) of the written-up field notes, interview transcripts, documents, and other empirical materials. An in vivo coding technique was used to code the data. Thus, it would be possible to obtain meaningful material from the interview transcript. The coded data were then analysed to find patterns based on the research model developed previously. The process continued to data display, a process of showing classified information that allows the drawing of conclusions. Matrix display was used to show the organised information in this study. After interpreting the data, this study was closed by drawing a conclusion and delivering recommendations based on the findings.

5. The Case Study Background

This study selected five different local government institutions that have already adopted a Web 2.0-based platform to promote government openness and provide open data and information. The selected institutions came from five different geographic locations. The three types of institutions included in this study were municipal government, regency government, and provincial government. Depok and Tangerang were representatives of municipal government while Jember and Situbondo represented the regency government. Jakarta was the only provincial government included in this study. Various types of government were included to enrich the insights based on their experience in adopting Web 2.0 technology. The interviews were conducted with the officers responsible for technology management, information management, and public communication. There were 12 interviewees involved in total, as shown in

Table 2. List of interviewees.

Location	Type of Government	Interviewee ID	Role
Tangerang	Municipality	TNG1	Head of Office Application Development and Integration
		TNG2	Head of Public Service Application Development
		TNG3	Head of Tangerang Live Room (City Control Room) T
Depok	Municipality	DPK4	Head of Informatics Application
		DPK5	Public Relations Officer
		DPK6	Head of Information Management
Jakarta	Provincial	JKT7	Head of Research and Development
		JKT8	Head of IT Development
Situbondo	Regency	STB9	Head of Public Communication
		STB10	Head of ICT Resource Management
Jember	Regency	JBR11	Head of IT Application
		JBR12	Head of Public Communication and Information Management

. Besides, official documents were also utilised, such as local regulations and standard operating procedures related to the initiatives to understand each case study’s context and compare the interviewee statements with what was stated in the official regulations.

Overall, each of the institutions involved in this study had its own unique initiatives towards open government utilising Web 2.0 technology. This study divided the initiatives into three main types: in-house, third-party, and popular social media. The third-party platform included applications or systems provided by a vendor chosen by the government office. Qlue and Lapor are the third-party platforms used by government institutions in this study. Qlue is a smart city apps provider that focuses on citizen participation. The Jakarta government officers mentioned Qlue as one of the channels they used for communicating with the public about their concerns and aspirations. Meanwhile, Lapor is an official application provided by the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform to gather the public’s wishes with regard to government public service. The last type of initiative was the utilisation of social media as one of the most popular Web 2.0-based applications. All government institutions have adopted social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to build intensive communications with the citizens, provide open information to the public, and involve the participation of the people in public policymaking. The in-house platform was Web 2.0-based technology developed by the internal team of the government office. They usually had an internal development team to build their own systems. The in-house systems were built to complement other Web 2.0 platforms with some additional capabilities, such as processing unstructured data produced by social media or other Web 2.0 platforms and integrate public interaction with the related stakeholders for a prompter response to specific problems reported through the platform. Generally, those government institutions that developed an in-house system have a dedicated development team with enough capability to build and maintain their own system. The following subsection contains further information about some of the in-house platforms considered in this study.

Table 3. List of Adopted Web 2.0 Systems.

Local Government	Social Media	In-House Platform	Third-Party Platform
Tangerang	Facebook, Instagram, Twitter	LAKSA, Tangerang Live	-
Depok	Facebook, Instagram, Twitter	SIGAP	-
Jakarta	Facebook, Instagram, Twitter	Citizen Relationship Management (CRM) System, e-Musrenbang	Qlue, Lapor
Situbondo	Facebook, Instagram	Situbondo Tera’	-
Jember	Facebook, Twitter	-	Lapor

summarises the initiatives adopted by the government institutions in this case study.

5.1. Citizen Relationship Management (CRM) DKI

Citizen Relationship Management (CRM) is an in-house system developed by the DKI Jakarta provincial government to aggregate the opinions of people from many channels such as social media and Qlue. Further, the citizens of Jakarta can also deliver their opinions or complain directly through this channel. It also enables the public to track an issue or complain about something by using this platform. This system also provides tools for government officials to coordinate with each other and to solve reported issues.

5.2. E-Musrenbang

E-Musrenbang DKI is an in-house system that enables knowledge sharing among government officers and the public to develop a regional development plan. It enables the public to be involved directly in the decision-making process of the DKI Jakarta provincial government. The citizens can suggest everything related to development issue in Jakarta and this input will be considered by the government when deciding public policy. This is a digitalised version of Musrenbang, a mechanism used to openly discuss regional development planning, which was previously conducted offline through face to face meet ups.

5.3. LAKSA

LAKSA (Layanan Kotak Saran Anda) is a channel of communication developed by the Tangerang local government. It is an interactive platform which enables the public to give their opinions, aspirations, or complaints related to the public service provided by the local government. LAKSA is a submenu included in Tangerang Live, which focuses on aggregation of public aspirations. All views received through this platform are then processed by the government officials as suggestions or directions to help to improve public services.

5.4. Tangerang Live

Tangerang Live is a city application initiated by the local government of Tangerang with many features to optimise public service. It employs several features which mainly focus on public information disclosure and a channel through which the public can express their views. The public information provided by this application can be shared with other social media channels.

5.5. SIGAP

SIGAP is a city-level channel provided by the local government of Depok. The citizens of Depok can send their suggestions or report problems related to Depok city development and public service. The application’s concept is similar to Facebook, but with a focus on the city’s problems. Both the public and government officials can post any response or comment on the aspiration thread and share the thread on popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

5.6. Situbondo Tera’

Situbondo Tera’ is an in-house platform which provides open information and an aspiration channel for the public. This application adopts the Twitter hashtag concept to categorise issues reported by the public. Citizens can contribute any concerns or wishes related to government programmes and public services.

6. Study Findings

This section elaborates on the findings of this study concerning the factors influencing the Web 2.0-based platform’s adoption to support open government initiatives in various government institutions in Indonesia. There are fifteen factors affecting Web 2.0 adoption both positively and negatively.

Table 4. Summary of Identified Adoption Factors.

Government Level	Provincial	Municipality		Regency
Location	DKI Jakarta	Tangerang	Depok	Situbondo	Jember
Technological Context
Perceived benefits	+	+	+	+	+
Compatibility	+	−	−	+	+
Complexity	−	+	−	−	+
ICT Infrastructure	+	+	+	+	−
Security and Privacy Concern	−	−	−	−	−
Organisational Context
Policy and Regulation	+	+	+	+	+
Degree of Formalisation	+/−	+/−	+/−	+/−	+
Organisation Learning	+	+	+	+	+
Organisation Culture	+		+/−		+
Type of Government	+	+
Technology Competence		+	+		−
Managerial Context
Support of Top Management	+	+	+	+	+
Managerial Innovativeness	+	+	+	+	+
Strategic Goals	+	+	+	+	+
Environmental Context
Citizen/Community Demand	+	+	+	+	+
Legislation and Political Influence	+/−	+	+/−	+	+
Bandwagon Effect	+	+	+	+	+

provides a summary of the factors influencing its adoption by the institutions. An explanation of each factor is given in the following section.

6.1. Technological Context

6.1.1. Perceived Benefits

The perceived benefits, referring to the advantages gained by a company as the result of its adoption, was observed to consistently influence the adoption of Web 2.0 across the five local government cases examined in this study. All interviewees in each case agreed that the utilisation of Web 2.0 in the form of social media, third-party systems, or in-house applications had positive impacts both for the government and the public. The most frequently mentioned impact was the role of Web 2.0 in providing channels of communication for the citizens so that the government can solve their problems quickly. The second most frequently mentioned impact was that Web 2.0 initiates positive interactions between governments and their citizens, helping to build collaboration with the public and to increase public participation. Web 2.0 also makes citizens feel that they are being listened to and are closer to the government. According to a statement by the Head of Tangerang Live Room (City Control Room) Technical Implementation Unit:

“A decision to adopt social media and provide access to information for the public leads citizens to be closer to the government and know what activities are being conducted by the government of Tangerang City”.

(Head of Tangerang Live Room Technical Implementation Unit, TNG3)

Excellent communication between the government and the public also contributes to the enhancement of public service quality as the next impact of the adoption decision. It also enables the public to supervise government activities and activities that are related to public policymaking. The interviewees from Depok and Jakarta also agreed that the developed system makes the government become more transparent by increasing public supervision. The adoption of Web 2.0 is not only beneficial for the public; it is also beneficial for the mayors, regents, and governors of different areas, who are then able to directly supervise the current conditions of public services in their area. Along with a transparent government, public trust will be increased. The next positive impact of the adoption of Web 2.0 technology is that it drives the government to evaluate its performance and maintain better coordination within the local government office. Government policy usually involves multiple government institutions. Therefore, coordination is an important thing to maintain. Public participation, which results from the adoption of Web 2.0 for promoting government openness, also enables the government to move closer to the real conditions in society. Thus, the government can work more efficiently and effectively since they can manage the human resources needed to provide public services.

6.1.2. Compatibility

The government institutions examined in this study adopted Web 2.0 technology by utilising existing platforms (social media and third-party apps) or building their own systems. This study found that when a government chose to adopt an existing Web 2.0 platform, compatibility, and business process compliance are influential for the adoption decision. Three cases showed that adoption had a positive impact, while two cases showed that it had a negative impact. For government institutions which previously used conventional methods to spread public information and gather public viewpoints, the Web 2.0 adoption process did not result in any challenges in terms of compatibility. Some government institution such as DKI Jakarta, Situbondo, and Jember saw the Web 2.0 platform as a promising technology that fit with their current business process. This was the case with the opinion expressed by the Head of IT Application of the Jember Information and Communication Office:

“Before we choose to adopt LAPOR as our aspiration system, we evaluated its compatibility and how far the system offered by Lapor can comply with our business process and needs.”

(Head of IT Application, JBR11)

On the other hand, for the government departments which have already implemented a computerised system, compatibility became a crucial issue since they needed to integrate the existing system with the newly adopted one. This was found in the cases of Tangerang and Depok. This compatibility issue was mainly caused by the database structure, which was different between the as-is system and the new system. Another interesting finding of this study was that the failure of the third-party system to comply with the government business process became the driving factor in building an in-house system. The Head of IT Development Jakarta Smart City emphasised that the decision to build in-house was driven by the inability of CROPS (one of services offered by Qlue) to facilitate the new processes and needs of government. Other than compliance with governmental processes and needs, compatibility with existing technology was also found to be influential for the adoption of Web 2.0 technology, especially for in-house systems developed by internal government teams.

6.1.3. Complexity

Complexity was known to have a negative or mixed impact regarding Web 2.0 adoption. Two cases showed a mixed impact, while the rest indicate a negative impact for the complexity factor. Complexity in this study covered the development and usage complexity. The negative impact was related to the integration complexity, especially for those who had been equipped with an in-house information system. For instance, an interviewee from Tangerang local government explained that there were still several complex issues while developing their in-house system, but these issues were not significant.

“We faced several problems in developing our system. However, we still can manage it well.”

(Head of Public Service Application Development, TNG2)

On the other hand, Jakarta’s local government emphasised that the unreadable legacy code was a significant source of system development complexity. Meanwhile, the ease of use of an existing platform, such as social media, was known to have a positive influence on the adoption process. The complexity of the old system was also driving the utilisation of Web 2.0 platforms such as social media. Several interviewees stated that social media provided a better experience that enabled them to give more efficient public service compared to email, SMS, telephone, or offline coordination.

“We previously use SMS, email, and phone to handle complaints from the citizens. We also used conventional methods by allowing them to come to our office and deliver their complaints. It made us very busy, and we could not manage them well that drove us to find other solutions to facilitate people’s aspirations.”

(Public Relation Officer, DPK5)

6.1.4. ICT Infrastructure

This study found that ICT Infrastructure plays a crucial role in Web 2.0 adoption decisions. All government institutions except the Jember Regency stated that their ICT infrastructure readiness helped them to adopt many initiatives. According to one of the interviewee (TNG2), it was quite challenging to gain the advantages of Web 2.0 technology, especially interactive participation with the public, without a proper ICT Infrastructure provided by the government.

“All initiatives adopted in Tangerang local government were considering ICT infrastructure aspects. It was impossible for us to run any application without proper infrastructure support. Therefore, we independently manage our data centre.”

(Head of Public Service Application Development, TNG2)

In contrast, the lack of ICT Infrastructure, especially a basic internet connection, became a barrier to optimising the adoption of Web 2.0. One of interviewees from Jember Regency said that the lack of internet coverage was still a barrier, especially for the citizens to access platforms provided by the government.

In detail, this study lists several infrastructures needed to support the Web 2.0 adoption process. The list includes a computer server, data centre, disaster recovery centre, and a public internet network. A free internet network is found to be the most critical infrastructure to prepare since citizens need an internet connection to use the Web 2.0 platform. The disaster recovery centre is needed as a mitigation process towards the potential risks that will affect system continuity in the future. In advance, an interviewee from the Jakarta provincial government office elaborated the detailed steps required to prepare the NECESSARY infrastructure. Since government procurement requires a rigid procedure, the government officers need to define the list of infrastructure needed each year. Therefore, the budget can be prepared, and the procurement process can be continued quickly. This also indicates the importance of budgeting support to optimise the adoption process. Finally, the availability of human resources to manage the infrastructure is also crucial to prepare.

6.1.5. Security and Privacy Concerns

Security and Privacy Concerns were found to negatively influence Web 2.0 adoption in all the case studies. As with other information technology products, security and privacy issues have also become the primary concern of Web 2.0 adoption. Moreover, the information related to government institutions managed through Web 2.0 technology is usually sensitive. Therefore, a government institution that adopts Web 2.0 needs to consider, prepare, and maintain the application’s security well. There would be several potential issues related to security and privacy concerns found in this study, such as Structured Query Language (SQL) Injection, black hat hacking, password theft, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks. Password theft is a risk mainly related to the use of social media. DKI Jakarta is one example of an institution targeted by hackers, according to a statement from the Jakarta Smart City Head of Research and Development (JKT7):

“Hackers usually try to test our system for many reasons. We are aware and make it as one of our concerns in implementing IT systems. To ensure the security of our system we have prepared the infrastructure, firewall, and other security standards”

(Head of Research and Development, JKT7)

In terms of privacy issues, our exploration found that anonymity poses a difficult dilemma that needs to be considered when implementing Web 2.0 platforms to gather citizens’ opinions. Citizens are required to be responsible in delivering their opinions to prevent chaotic discussions. On the other hand, people’s privacy is at risk when it comes into sensitive issues. This study found several cases where people’s individual safety was endangered due to using a Web 2.0 platform provided by the government to report the activities of a fraudulent government officer. Terror, intimidation, and similar threats were experienced by the citizens who give those sensitive reports. One of the interviewee explained the case as follows:

“When we first launched our in-house aspiration system, there was a citizen who received intimidation from an unknown person after reporting a case related to one of the government officers. It was a serious risk for the citizen that triggered us to add a whistle-blower report feature to facilitate anonymous reports containing sensitive issues such as illegal levies or abusive action.”

(Head of Office Application Development and Integration, TNG1)

6.2. Organisational Context

6.2.1. Policy and Regulation

Multiple case studies indicated the positive impacts of policy and regulation with respect to Web 2.0 adoption for an open government initiative. As an organisation with a rigid procedure, the presence of formal policy and regulation supporting the adoption can accelerate the process. There are several impacts of the presence of policy and regulation on the adoption decision, such as: (1) optimising innovation; (2) giving government organisations the ability to coordinate business among government offices; (3) strengthening the instructions of the Regional Head; (4) improving the performance of government officers; (5) minimising uncertainty for government officers; and (6) contributing to changing the work culture. The Head of Informatics Application from Depok (DPK4) emphasised the importance of policy and regulation in fostering innovation:

“Mayoral policy about e-government issued in 2017 enabled us to run quickly, create many innovations, including adopting several systems to improve public service quality. It brings an easier way to integrate the as-is system”

(Head of Informatics Application, DPK4)

A few types of formal regulation that can be prepared to support the adoption initiative are regional regulations, the decrees of the Regional Head, Regional Head regulations, the state constitution, a master plan, and instructions from the Regional Head. Such instructions from the Regional Head are consistently mentioned in several cases in this study and are known as the most significant regulation type to support the process of regional governments adopting Web 2.0. Other than a formal regulation, specific policies, such as remuneration and performance appraisal, are also influential in driving its adoption.

6.2.2. Degree of Formalisation

The degree of formalisation has been found to be a crucial factor for the Web 2.0 adoption process to accelerate the open government initiative. It results in both positive and mixed impacts with respect to Web 2.0 adoption. The degree of formalisation, which is related to the degree of clarity of the procedure, can help the government to effectively respond to public aspirations. Public services usually require good teamwork and are highly dependent on government offices. Therefore, along with the adoption of Web 2.0, clear standard operational procedures (SOP) also need to be prepared. The government needs to set several standards to optimise its services, such as response time, security, and operational standards. The SOP need to include a clear operational flow that helps the personnel operating the Web 2.0 system. The clarity of the SOP can optimise the coordination process among the government entities that directly optimise the perceived benefits of the adopted system, according to a statement by the Head of Public Communication from Situbondo (STB9):

“We need good coordination to ensure that our system can give optimal benefits for the citizens. Good coordination flow is required to support the system implementation”

(Head of Public Communication from Situbondo, STB9)

A clear procedure can also make problem dispatch run better, which leads to an improvement in service response time by the government. It is also crucial to minimise human error, which may lead to a reduction in public trust. The failure of a government office in delivering excellent service to the public can also affect the reputation of the local government, including the Regional Head.

6.2.3. Organisation Culture

Organisations’ adaptability, responsiveness, and sectoral ego are several themes that have been identified related to government institutions’ culture that influence the adoption process of Web 2.0 technology for the open government initiative. The ability of organisation members to adapt to and become familiar with the newly adopted technology is needed to optimise the outcome of the adoption initiatives. This aspect has positive impacts according to five case studies. Hence, organisation learning mechanisms, such as socialization, training, and technical guidance, play a vital role in enhancing the personnel’s familiarity with the technology, especially for in-house developed systems that are not yet intuitive for novice users. It is believed to improve people’s readiness and create a responsive work culture, especially helping the older members of the institution who may be relatively unable to adapt and be technology savvy. It is supported by the statement from Depok Head of Informatics Application (DPK4):

“This innovation absolutely affects the working method of the government employees at all levels. It is also challenging for the older members of the organisation with low self-efficacy in technology. To address this challenge, we provide routine socialisation and technical guidance, so that they can be more ready become adaptive with the technology adoption initiative”.

(Head of Informatics Application, DPK4)

Organisation responsiveness and sectoral ego are the other types of organisational culture that are found to play a significant role in the Web 2.0 adoption process. The main objective of utilisation of Web 2.0 for the open government initiative is to provide a responsive interaction between the public and the government. Therefore, the responsive culture of the government is vital to achieve the adoption objectives and maintain a favourable reputation of the government. This study also indicated that sectoral ego can be crucial because public service usually requires good coordination among stakeholders. It influences the response time to deal with public aspirations. A local government with a high sectoral egoism has a more significant challenge instead of a local government with low sectoral egoism. Sectoral egoism is sometimes related to organisation resistance, which leads to difficulty when implementing new technology in the institution. However, this study found that enhancing responsive culture and minimising sectoral egoism can be achieved by involving top management, primarily the Regional Head. The top management can encourage the required culture by issuing formal regulations and policy.

6.2.4. Personnel Competence

Personnel competence is the last organisational factor that influence adoption of web 2.0 technologies for open government initiatives. There are two types of competence according to the result of the case study that are important to be prepared by the government in optimizing the adoption, such as technological competence and business process fluency. Technological competence covers the holistic knowledge to develop, maintain, and operate web 2.0 technologies. A good number of programmers with Web 2.0-related knowledge can minimise the problems at the development stage. The quantity of qualified human resources is known to optimise task force management, which can deliver an optimal outcome for the government. Several cases in this study indicated that the presence of administrators already familiar with social media significantly reduced the challenges in managing the adopted system. The equal distribution of competent personnel is also an important concern, especially for the government in rural areas with a limited access and resource. The human resource quality gap might be a huge challenge faced in utilising Web 2.0 for open government initiatives. Compact coordination and public service excellence among government officials cannot be delivered without equal personnel quality.

This study also reveals the importance of personnel competence related with the government business process. The lack of officer’s knowledge about the government coordination process can slow down the response time in handling the problems of the citizens gathered through the web 2.0 platforms. Government processes are usually complicated and involve many stakeholders. Each government official has its own function to serve public aspirations and cannot carelessly just take any action. Therefore, according to an interviewee from Depok local government, each of the persons who are responsible for managing public aspirations using social media are required to have product knowledge.

“Our personnel here must have product knowledge, especially about the technical process within the government. This knowledge is needed, especially for the Social Media Administrator, to answer complaints or aspirations of the citizens. Therefore, it is important for them to have that kind of knowledge so that they can give the best answer to the problems of the public.”

(Public Relations Officer, DPK5)

6.3. Managerial Context

6.3.1. Support of Top Management

Top management in this context refers to the regional leaders who have the most significant authority in an executive government office and other top leaders such, regional vice leader and the regional secretary. All case studies involved in this study indicated that top management support has significant influence for the success of Web 2.0 adoption. This study identified several types of support of top management, which contribute to optimising the adoption process. The most mentioned type of support was the giving of instructions, suggestions, and direction towards the development and management process. Instruction from the Regional Leader was claimed to be the most potent catalyst in the adoption process. Even though sometimes initiatives came from the bottom, the decision was still up to the Regional Leader. Another type of support identified was direct involvement in the socialisation process. An institution tends to be resistant to new changes, such as adopting a new system. The presence of a Regional Leader in socialisation based on the case study in Tangerang was found to be an effective way to drive changes within the government and minimise resistance. Leadership power owned by the Regional Leader influences all government officials to follow the instructions and adapt to the new system. Reward and punishment can also be applied by the Regional Leader to encourage the government officers to use Web 2.0 for gathering more public aspirations. The Jakarta provincial government used this strategy to optimise the adoption by integrating the performance of the officers in gathering aspirations and handling public problems within their bonus scheme. According to the statement of the Head of Research and Development of communication, information, and statistics in the Jakarta provincial government, the policy successfully increased the response percentage up to 90 % after implementation. The Regional Leader can also support the adoption by providing sufficient budget to manage the system and increase the quality of the human resource.

Overall, several empirical findings in this study emphasised the critical role of top management support in supporting open government initiatives utilising a Web 2.0-based platform. However, the dominant influence of the Regional Leader as the top management brings up worries regarding leadership transition. Some interviewees in this study expressed their worries about the existence of the adoption initiatives since each leader brings different programmes and vision. These worries were expressed by one of the interviewees from the Tangerang local government:

“Our mayor is already in his second period and will be replaced by another mayor in 2022. We cannot assume that the new mayor brings the same vision about technology utilisation. It is possible that this room (Tangerang Live Room) and other IT initiatives would be abandoned and not well maintained after the leadership transition. I think it is also a common worry that occurs in other local governments”

(Head of Office Application Development and Integration, TNG1)

A different opinion was stated by the Head of Information Management of Depok communication and information office who believed that these worries were not necessary since the adoption of Web 2.0 provides many benefits both for citizens and the government:

“Even though there will be changes after the leadership transition, I am sure that they would not be that huge. This initiative brings good impact both for government and the citizens. A good programme has a large probability to be continued by the next leader”

(Head of Information Management, DPK6)

6.3.2. Managerial Innovativeness

Multiple case studies found that initiatives to adopt Web 2.0 as the supporting tool for open government initiatives were driven by managerial innovativeness. This factor was found to have positive impacts in all case studies involved. The Regional Leader and the government official leader are two main actors who are known as the primary initiators of innovation. One of the evidences found in this study was the statement from the Head of Research and Development of the Jakarta communication, information, and statistical office (JKT7) as follows:

“The initiative to adopt the social media platform and third-party applications like Qlue is triggered by the request of the governor to increase public participation in monitoring their environment. The Governor argued that the number of government officers was insufficient so that the role of public participation needed to be enhanced to help the government in its work. This desire then translated into several Web 2.0-based platform adoption initiatives to fulfil the needs”

(Head of Research and Development, JKT7)

Similar evidence was also found in other local governments observed in this study. Three main Regional Head innovative drivers found in this study were central government influence, commitment to providing excellent public service, and local pride. It is understandable that every government wants to deliver excellent service to the public. In addition, the central government influence is not surprising since the open government initiative is also a national agenda. Meanwhile, local pride as the driver of innovativeness becomes an appealing finding of this study. This driver is found to exist in the Situbondo adoption initiative. Our interviewee expressed that the Regent wanted to have local pride since Situbondo was still categorised as an underdeveloped region. This local pride was also expected to nurture a better public service in the regency.

6.3.3. Strategic Goals

Strategic goals are the next managerial factor influencing Web 2.0 adoption in the public sector. Strategic goals usually include a more concrete form of the Regional Leader’s vision. This case study lists several types of strategic goals that drive adoption initiatives. These types include regional vision and mission, short-medium term development plan (RPJMD), and a master plan leading towards a Smart City. Depok local government set its vision and mission as the basis of any policy, including Web 2.0 adoption to enhance the openness of the government. Meanwhile, the Jakarta provincial government expressed that the initiative to build a participative platform was already included in their short-medium term development plan. On the other hand, the Smart City master plan was the primary driver of Web 2.0 adoption. Overall, this study indicates that strategic goals are a crucial factor to support adoption since every policy within the government needs to be aligned with the regional strategic goals.

6.4. Environmental Context

6.4.1. Citizen/Community Demand

The first environmental factor identified in this study was citizen/community demand and known to have a positive influence about the adoption of Web 2.0 in all case studies. The case study in Depok showed that citizen demand was one of the main drivers of innovation and motivation to increase public service quality. In Jember it was explicitly stated that the citizens have a large effect to ensure continuous innovation and to maintain positive interactions between government and the citizens.

Social media in this study was found to provide better access for the citizens to give any suggestions to the government. Previously, the citizens cannot directly express their demands due to the lack of access to the government policy-making process. This indicates that citizens may not directly demand a new system like Web 2.0. They tend to deliver their substantial demands related to the government service while Web 2.0-based platform is utilised to fulfil these demands. However, this study also discovered that citizens also influence the government to follow the trend, which requires everything to be available online. Moreover, social media interaction is rising every year so that the government needs to adjust its behaviour to citizens to maximise its services. Several case studies showed that the public also wants to be closer and have a better engagement with the government. It is believed that a good relationship between the government and the public can create a positive interaction, which leads to a more transparent and conducive government.

6.4.2. Legislation and Political Influence

A local government is supervised and controlled by the legislative institutions. This study provides evidence that legislation also influences the Web 2.0 adoption process. The four roles of legislative institutions identified in this study are as a supervisor, budget allocator, regulator, and to provide suggestions. The local government is required to give a regular report to the legislative body. The report usually includes the budget allocation report and outcome of a programme. It is a mandatory administration process to gain budget allocation support from the legislative body. The legislative body will add the budget allocation for the government programme if the previous implementation has been proven to give a good outcome. Enough funding support is essential to develop and maintain the system as well as to increase the personnel capacity in managing the adopted technology. Legislation institutions can also be representative of the public by giving suggestions related to the adoption process. An interviewee from the Situbondo local government emphasised the importance of suggestions given by the legislative body. They usually ask the local government to consider any possible risk towards the adoption policy. The legislator can also influence adoption through regulations. The regulations can become the catalyst for the process. Regulations issued by the legislative body are as necessary as the regulations issued by the Regional Head in terms of supporting Web 2.0 adoption in the public sector.

Meanwhile, adoption of Web 2.0 also has political implications, especially for the Regional Head as an individual. Most of the Web 2.0 adoption initiatives observed in this study aimed at providing a better public service. The success of implementation could increase the reputation of the government as an institution and the Regional Head as an individual, according to the statement from one of the interviewees (DPK6):

“In the end, all of these initiatives are set as the proof of the mayor’s political promises stated in the election process and performance indicator as a leader. Therefore, a failure in implementing this initiative can lead to negative sentiments given by the public concerning the performance of the government. It obviously becomes the drawback for the Regional Head politically.”

(Head of Information Management, DPK6)

6.4.3. Bandwagon Effect

The last factor identified in this study is the bandwagon effect, which is related to the tendency of a government to adopt technology because of the trend and previous implementation success by other institutions. The influence usually comes from a comparative study conducted by the local government with other institutions in Indonesia and abroad. A comparative study can also be conducted through an international conference that focuses on city innovation, as undertaken by the Jakarta provincial government. The comparative study was held as a medium for the government to follow the trends, learn the best practice, and benchmark its performance against that of other institutions. The best practices and innovations gathered from this activity may then be included in the government’s innovation planning. The government decides what practices are suitable to adopt in its own region. An interviewee from the Jakarta provincial government stated that his institution does not follow all innovations gathered from the comparative study. Instead, the insights gathered were used as inspiration that still needs to be filtered and adjusted, considering the unique character and problems of each region. Best practice is believed to simplify the planning and development process since the government does not need to prepare everything from scratch.

7. Discussion

A combination of the TOE Framework with its extension context, DOI, and Institutional Theory, as used in this study, has helped us to discover factors influencing Web 2.0-based platform adoption as part of an open government initiative. Fifteen factors were identified through the multiple case study of five different local government institutions. The managerial context, as an extension of general TOE, consistently has a positive impact on the adoption process. This study attempted to extend previous studies by combining several theoretical lenses and discovering empirical evidence. An Indonesian case study is also relatively new in this domain and gives a contribution as a prior study which can be used by future researchers to explore more cases about open government technology adoption in developing countries.

Within the technology context, this study found that perceived benefits are the driver of adoption initiatives. This is in line with the prior results which emphasised the critical role of perceived benefits in influencing Web 2.0 technology adoption in a government institution [1,17]. This study discovered some of the types of benefits which influence its adoption.

Compatibility is also found to have an influence on the decision to adopt Web 2.0 to support open government initiatives. This is also consistent with a number of studies related to social media adoption in the public sector [17] or the adoption of other technologies in the private sector [31,45,49]. However, the compatibility aspect of this study does not necessarily have a positive influence. The positive influences are only applicable for the adoption of existing Web 2.0 platforms, such as popular social media. Meanwhile, the decision to adopt a third-party system or build an in-house system is rather more challenging due to compatibility issues. The government needs to assess whether the decision can comply with the existing business process and technology.

A similar finding is found in the complexity factor. This is actually a new finding which was not included in previous research about Web 2.0 or social media adoption in the public sector [1,35,39]. The complexity of technology integration is found to pose a barrier to the adoption process, especially for institutions that have already developed an in-house system. In contrast, for institutions that adopt popular Web 2.0 platforms, the complexity factor tends to have positive impacts since the popular Web 2.0 platform can provide ease of use compared to the previous technologies. The first three technological factors in this study also highlighted the relevance of DOI theory in explaining the Web 2.0 adoption phenomenon in the public sector.

The next technological factor influencing the adoption is ICT Infrastructure. Alotaibi et al. [35] explained that it is essential for the government to prepare the ICT infrastructure to support the process of adoption. This finding not only emphasised the importance of having reliable ICT Infrastructure, but also indicated the detailed aspects which must be considered to optimise the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies. Precise and detailed infrastructure needs, the availability of competent human resources to manage the infrastructure, and infrastructure budget support are three detailed components that need to be taken into account to enhance the readiness of the adoption.

The last technological factors that must be considered are security and privacy concerns. Our findings contradict previous research by Alotaibi et al. [35], which stated that security and privacy issues are not of concern when organisations are deciding whether to adopt Web 2.0 (social media) platforms. This study indicates that when adopting Web 2.0 services, organisations also need to pay attention to security and privacy issues regardless of the type of Web 2.0 which is being adopted. Password theft is one of the primary concerns for social media adoption, which contradicts the previous finding, which dismissed the influence of security issues. For in-house systems, general security vulnerabilities, such as DDOS Attacks and SQL Injections, are also found to be essential to mitigate. In terms of privacy concerns, this study found that the anonymity offered (or not) by a collaborative platform poses a particular dilemma in the case of Indonesia. Citizens are required to be responsible and use their real identities when delivering their opinions online to prevent discussions from becoming chaotic. On the other hand, people’s privacy is at risk when it comes into sensitive issues, and we discovered some cases of citizens being intimidated and threatened due to reporting the actions of corrupt officials. Hence, privacy issues need to specifically be addressed in the future to ensure both openness and personal safety within Web 2.0 platforms as a tool to gather public views.

In the organizational context, this study found that Indonesia’s local governments need policies and regulations to drive the adoption of Web 2.0 technology. Formal regulations can guide local governments to apply many initiatives, including the adoption of Web 2.0 to support open government. Specifically, policies and regulations can also help to establish better coordination among government officers and minimise resistance to adopting new technology. Our findings are consistent with previous research focused on social media adoption in government organisations [17,35].

Further, previous research findings by Sharif et al. [17] indicated that the degree of formalisation was also consistent with the findings in this study. The clarity of procedures can optimise the implementation of new technologies at the operational level. This study found that lack of procedural clarity can slow down the response time, which leads to negative public sentiment for the government, especially related to the performance of the Regional Head.

Workplace culture is also one of organizational aspects that influences the adoption of Web 2.0 technology. In this study, organizational cultures are related in a variety of aspects, including an organization’s personnel’s adaptability and ability to learn new skills, organizational responsiveness, and sectoral egoism. As is the case with other technologies, government personnel need to learn how to operate and maintain the local government’s Web 2.0 platform. Therefore, the ability of an institution to provide proper training and other learning facilities is necessary to ensure that all staff are familiar with the newly adopted technology. All of the cases in this study found that this factor is of concern when preparing the adoption process, unlike the case in a previous study [35], which indicated there was a lack of attention from the government in providing the learning facilities to support the technology’s adoption. The novel findings of this study regarding organizational culture are responsiveness and sectoral egoism. Government responsiveness is crucial to ensure the optimal benefits of the adoption of Web 2.0, which functions as the intermediary between the people and public services. Without proper responsiveness, the Web 2.0 platform is just a meaningless artifact that does not provide any significant impact. Meanwhile, sectoral egoism is found to inhibit the adoption process. In the Indonesian context, each government institution tends to bring its own interests, which are often in conflict with each other. Adopting the Web 2.0 platform successfully to enable better public services requires good communication and strong leadership to unite, which together can promote this united vision.

Personnel competence is another organizational factor found in this study. It extends the findings of the prior studies that indicated the significance of this factor for Web 2.0 adoption in the public sector [39,40]. This study separated the competencies into two types: technological competency and business process fluency. Technological competency is important for supporting development and the operational process, while business process-related knowledge is the core resource to build a two-way communication between a government and its citizens regarding public policies and services.

This study further found that the support of top management, especially the Regional Head, who has the highest authority in the local government, played a crucial role in the adoption of Web 2.0 technology. This factor has previously been reported to be the most influential factor for Web 2.0 or general information technology adoption in the public sector [17,39,49]. Along with the existence of formal regulations and supportive policy, top management can drive positive changes for people and promote government openness through the adoption of Web 2.0 technology. This study also found that most of the Web 2.0 adoption initiatives in an Indonesian context were driven by managers’ innovativeness, including the Regional Head and the Government Office Head. This finding is consistent with the systematic review conducted by Haneem [49] and social media adoption research by Seigler [40]. This factor was previously used as a synonym for top management support [17,39]. However, this current study defines these two factors differently. The support of top management focuses on the kind of encouragement that can be given by top management to support the adoption of these technologies, while managerial innovativeness emphasises the background of innovation provided by managers. A strategic goal is considered to be the next managerial factor influencing the adoption. This study emphasised that a system’s compliance with the government’s objectives plays a crucial role in its adoption. This can be one of the considerations which influence whether or not a government will adopt a Web 2.0 system.

The Institutional Theory model, which is combined in this research with the environmental context, appears to be relevant to the phenomenon of Web 2.0 adoption. Mimetic pressure, which is translated into the bandwagon effect in the context of this study, and coercive pressure, related to political influence, is found to influence the adoption of Web 2.0 by local governments in Indonesia. This study indicates that most of the local government initiatives, including Web 2.0 adoption, are also driven by success stories from other organisations. Benchmarking was conducted as the medium to find best practices and to consider novel initiatives to adopt. This also complements previous studies concerning social media adoption in the public sector, which also state that the bandwagon effect is one of factors influencing the adoption of Web 2.0 [17,35].

Political and legislative influence were also found to be influential in this study, which is consistent with a previous study [40]. In the context of this study, political and legislative influence are related to financial support, supervision and consultation functions, and government reputation. The executive institution usually initiates the adoption. The legislative board could be crucial to fostering or inhibiting initiatives since it has significant power to determine funding decisions or cancel any initiatives conducted by the executive. Web 2.0 adoption also politically influences government reputation. Its successful adoption might have a prominent positive effect on citizens’ perceptions of the government’s performance. It is also found that such a reputation is also beneficial for incumbent leaders to increase their electability at election rallies.

The last factor identified in this case study was citizen/community demand. Even though management initiatives mostly drive Web 2.0 adoption, the voice of the citizens also plays its role in influencing the adoption of technologies. People’s desire for better public services and willingness to become closer to the government are examples of citizen demand that influence Web 2.0 adoption. This factor also previously appeared in several studies relevant to social media adoption in the public sector [1,17,39].

8. Conclusions and Implications

This study has revealed factors influencing Web 2.0 technology adoption to support open government initiatives in Indonesian local government, which has been previously lacking in the literature. Five different local government institutions in different regions were involved in this study. By combining the TOE Framework as the base of the research model with its extension context, a diffusion of the Innovation Theory, and the Institutional Theory, this study identified fifteen factors influencing Web 2.0 adoption, which were classified into four different categories: technological, organisational, managerial, and environmental factors. The classification was aimed at clarifying the contextual differences among the identified factors. In addition, the classification for the application of the TOE Framework in the public sector was relatively new.

The findings of this study have several research and practical implications. This study provides empirical evidence concerning the phenomenon of Web 2.0 adoption in the Indonesian context in terms of its research implications. Therefore, this study could be an initial step towards exploring technology adoption related to Indonesia’s open government initiatives. The richness of the case studies also helps other researchers understand each organization’s uniqueness regarding technology adoption. Furthermore, this study proposes a novel application of the TOE Framework by combining it with other technology adoption theories, such as DOI and IT, to help researchers to understand technology adoption in the public sector. The addition of the managerial context enables researchers to emphasise the important role of managers’ attitudes towards new innovations. Moreover, in the Indonesian context, top management in any government institution plays a crucial role in most of the policies issued by the government. This study also provides an understanding that each factor can have different effects on different adoption methods.

The results of this study also have practical implications for the government as the adopter of the technology and third-party vendors as the technology provider. As an institution with a rigid culture, the government needs to prepare formal regulations to support the adoption process. The government needs to think beyond the technology solution in preparing for the adoption. The presence of formal regulations is necessary for reasons such as supporting change management, providing clear guidance for the implementation, and giving a strong legitimation of the policy. It also can mitigate risks that may potentially be found during the adoption process. The government also needs to align the adoption initiative with the regional strategic goals. Therefore, the adoption decision can bring positive outcomes, especially for the public, rather than simply being an ineffective showpiece. By considering the strategic goals, the adoption initiatives can be a painkiller, which can solve the government’s and the public’s problems. Meanwhile, for the third-party vendors, this study suggests the importance of compatibility aspects. Compliance with the business process and ease of integration are the main aspects that can improve the probability of the adoption of Web 2.0 technology by government institutions. The third-party vendors also need to pay attention to the complexity of the system provided. The system must provide a good user experience so that the government officers who use the system can operate it efficiently. The next aspect that needs to be considered is the support of top management. Aligning the technology with strategic objectives and playing on political influence can be some steps that third-party vendors can consider to increase the probability of adoption.

Although this study provides empirical evidence concerning the adoption of Web 2.0 technology in the context of Indonesian local government, this study still has some limitations. This study has identified and explored the factors influencing the adoption without adequate explanation of the relationship between the factors. This research cannot precisely state which factor has the most significant influence on the adoption process. Therefore, further research is suggested to explore an alternative methodology, such as conducting mixed-methods research to answer several questions that are not addressed in this study and gain a more generalizable result. Further, this study focuses on limited case studies concerning local governments on Java Island. Besides, it only covers government institutions that have already adopted web 2.0 technologies. Future research could conduct a similar study in other local government institutions in different geographic locations, especially in government institutions that have not fully adopted Web 2.0 technology for public openness. Future research can employ other theoretical lenses to further explore the effect of national culture on the adoption of Web 2.0 technology, since Indonesia is known as a country with diverse characteristics in each region.