Analysis of Factors Affecting Adoption of Volunteered Geographic Information in the Context of National Spatial Data Infrastructure

Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) have been implemented for the last four decades in most countries. One of the key objectives of SDIs is to ensure the quick availability and accessibility of spatial data. The success of SDI depends on the underlying spatial datasets. Many developing countries such as Pakistan are facing problems in implementing SDI because of the unavailability of spatial data. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is an alternate source for obtaining spatial data. Therefore, the question is what factors hamper the adoption of VGI for making it part of SDI in Pakistan. The intention behind this paper is to explore such factors as the key research question. To do so, we make use of the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework along with the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to empirically analyze the factors impeding VGI from becoming part of SDI in the country. The study concludes that many technical, organizational, and environmental factors affect the adoption of VGI to be part of SDI in Pakistan.