A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

A Local-State Spatial Data Sharing Partnership Model to Facilitate SDI Development
2. understanding the particular context within which participants act, and the
influence that this context has on their actions;
3. identifying unanticipated phenomena and influences;
4. understanding the process by which events and actions take place; and
5. developing casual explanations.
In the context of this research, the use of a qualitative approach was considered to be the
most appropriate method to investigate the data sharing partnerships and the participants
that act within those partnerships. Qualitative methods also provide the opportunity to
understand the context within which these data sharing partnerships operate, especially the
government to government environments and the issues of authority, autonomy and
hierarchy. Equally important was the need to describe the processes and events which led
to the current partnerships, particularly the reasons for their initiation, their operating
framework and their stages of development.
Qualitative research strategies have developed and emerged over time, and include
ethnographies, grounded theory, case studies, phenomenological research, narrative
research, and action research. For this research it was decided that a case study strategy
would be a suitable approach. The case study approach and justification for this choice are
detailed below.
Justification for Case Study Approach
The case study strategy has been used widely across many disciplines including the
investigation of organisational issues and information systems development and operation.
Benbasat et al. (1987) proposed a suitable definition of the case study approach for
understanding information systems and provides a useful description of the approach for
investigating ICT and data sharing partnerships.
“A case study examines a phenomenon in its natural setting, employing multiple methods
of data collection to gather information from one or a few entities (people, groups, or
organisations). The boundaries of the phenomenon are not clearly evident at the outset of
the research and no experimental control or manipulation is used.” (Benbasat et al. 1987,
p. 370).
The authors advocate the case study approach in the information systems area because the
field is characterised by constant technological change and innovation, and researchers can
study the innovations put in place by practitioners rather than providing the initial wisdom
for the ideas.
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