Why Open Data Applications fail : A multiple case study of five Swedish open data applications

Sammanfattning: In the 21st century data has become a very valuable resource, being collected by individuals, companies, organizations and governments. Unfortunately, as more and more data is being collected, more time is also spent on locking it up, centralizing power and knowledge to a few actors. Open data is an idea and field of research, with a clear aim to make data available to everyone without restrictions. Among various benefits, it has been suggested that open data has great economic potential, but since most people lack the necessary skills to make use of the data there needs to be an actor which creates a service around it. However, despite the predictions of wealth open data service creation is still in its infancy; few services are being created and most projects do not last beyond prototype stage. This thesis investigates reasons for why many open data applications (ODAs) do not continue developing and how one can overcome these obstacles. The study is carried out as a multiple case study on five Swedish cases that all were created during a publicly funded hackathon, Hack for Sweden. The cases are analyzed from multiple perspectives, including common reasons for startup failure, market failure theory and business model analysis. Findings suggest that the failure of an ODA is a multi-dimensional problem, which is in line with previous research on general startup failure. The study concludes that failure of an ODA can be attributed to factors related to the product and the entrepreneur(s), but also to general characteristics of ODAs. These characteristics come into play when the ODA aims to create value for society or a public actor. In such cases the study concludes that in order for more ODAs to develop sustainably and create value in the long-term, actors from the public sector must support and cooperate with ODA-creators in the development of the services.