ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the issue of spatial data sharing across organisational boundaries in more detail and provides the theoretical context for the research. It locates the research within the field of innovation studies by relating it to research on the diffusion of innovations. The chapter reviews literature that deals specifically with spatial data sharing. It justifies the selection of the theoretical approach of the study, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), by considering alternative decision making models. The chapter introduces the principles of the TPB and outlines the central research questions. The most salient, the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), proposed by Fishbein and Ajzen, is most appropriate when behaviour is subject to volitional control. Apart from attitudes, it contains a social norm component to capture situational constraints that may influence decisions. The TRA and the TPB are not restricted to explaining the determinants of behaviour in a specific behavioural domain, they can also be widely applied.