IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v52y2025i8p1796-1813.html

Studying tech adoption with “text-as-data†: Opportunities, pitfalls, and complementarities in the case of transportation

Author

Listed:
  • Shih-Hung Chiu
  • Tianyu Han
  • Alison E Post
  • Ishana Ratan
  • Kenichi Soga

Abstract

The rapid digitization and publication of local government records presents researchers with an unprecedented chance to study governance processes. In tandem, advances in computer science and statistics—alongside significant increases in computational power—have led to the development of “text-as-data†methods and their application to social science and policy research. This paper evaluates the potential utility of digitized public meeting minutes and video recordings for studying decision-making about technology adoption by local public agencies, using survey data on the same topic as a benchmark. Focusing on transit agencies in California, we evaluate surveys and digitized meeting records with respect to overall data availability, bias in data availability, and the types of information about technology adoption contained. We find that meeting minutes and video recordings are available for more than twice as many agencies than for a state transit agency-sponsored survey, and that the availability of digitized records is not skewed toward larger agencies, as is the case for survey data. Meanwhile, we find important complementarities with respect to the type of information available about technology adoption in these three data sources.

Suggested Citation

  • Shih-Hung Chiu & Tianyu Han & Alison E Post & Ishana Ratan & Kenichi Soga, 2025. "Studying tech adoption with “text-as-data†: Opportunities, pitfalls, and complementarities in the case of transportation," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 52(8), pages 1796-1813, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:8:p:1796-1813
    DOI: 10.1177/23998083241311039
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23998083241311039
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23998083241311039?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Craig Volden, 2006. "States as Policy Laboratories: Emulating Success in the Children's Health Insurance Program," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(2), pages 294-312, April.
    2. Catherine Brinkley & Jenny Wagner, 2024. "Who Is Planning for Environmental Justice—and How?," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(1), pages 63-76, January.
    3. Kinra, Aseem & Beheshti-Kashi, Samaneh & Buch, Rasmus & Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick & Pereira, Francisco, 2020. "Examining the potential of textual big data analytics for public policy decision-making: A case study with driverless cars in Denmark," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 68-78.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amy Y. Li, 2017. "Covet Thy Neighbor or “Reverse Policy Diffusion”? State Adoption of Performance Funding 2.0," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 58(7), pages 746-771, November.
    2. Felix Strebel & Thomas Widmer, 2012. "Visibility and facticity in policy diffusion: going beyond the prevailing binarity," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 45(4), pages 385-398, December.
    3. Agnello, Luca & Castro, Vitor & Jalles, João Tovar & Sousa, Ricardo M., 2015. "What determines the likelihood of structural reforms?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 129-145.
    4. Luo, Shuli & He, Sylvia Y. & Grant-Muller, Susan & Song, Linqi, 2023. "Influential factors in customer satisfaction of transit services: Using crowdsourced data to capture the heterogeneity across individuals, space and time," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 173-183.
    5. Thomas Holyoke & Jeffrey Henig & Heath Brown & Natalie Lacireno-Paquet, 2009. "Policy dynamics and the evolution of state charter school laws," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(1), pages 33-55, February.
    6. Schwerhoff, Gregor, 2013. "Leadership and International Climate Cooperation," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 162380, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    7. Millimet, Daniel L., 2013. "Environmental Federalism: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 7831, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Yu, Xiaolin & Wan, Kai & Du, Qunyang, 2023. "Can carbon market policies achieve a “point-to-surface” effect?—Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    9. Michelle Livermore & Rebecca Powers & Belinda Davis & Younghee Lim, 2011. "Failing to Make Ends Meet: Dubious Financial Success Among Employed Former Welfare to Work Program Participants," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 73-83, March.
    10. Nadiya Kostyuk, 2024. "Allies and diffusion of state military cybercapacity," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(1), pages 44-58, January.
    11. Volker Britz & Hans Gersbach, 2014. "Experimentation in Democratic Mechanisms," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 14/199, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    12. Fabrizio Gilardi, 2010. "Who Learns from What in Policy Diffusion Processes?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(3), pages 650-666, July.
    13. Roman Senninger & Daniel Bischof, 2018. "Working in unison: Political parties and policy issue transfer in the multilevel space," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(1), pages 140-162, March.
    14. Jacqueline Chattopadhyay, 2018. "State Health Insurance Regulation and Self-Employment Rates After the Great Recession: The Role of Guaranteed Issue Mandates," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 32(1), pages 78-92, February.
    15. Dorothy M. Daley & Megan Mullin & Meghan E. Rubado, 2014. "State Agency Discretion in a Delegated Federal Program: Evidence from Drinking Water Investment," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 564-586.
    16. Chenyang Wu & Scott Le Vine & Elizabeth Bengel & Jason Czerwinski & John Polak, 2022. "Sentiment analysis of popular-music references to automobiles, 1950s to 2010s," Transportation, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 641-678, April.
    17. Baldwin, Elizabeth & Carley, Sanya & Nicholson-Crotty, Sean, 2019. "Why do countries emulate each others’ policies? A global study of renewable energy policy diffusion," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 29-45.
    18. Maryann P. Feldman & Lauren Lanahan & Iryna V. Lendel, 2014. "Experiments in the Laboratories of Democracy," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 28(2), pages 107-131, May.
    19. Timothy Callaghan & Steven Sylvester, 2019. "Autism spectrum disorder, politics, and the generosity of insurance mandates in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, May.
    20. Lanahan, Lauren & Feldman, Maryann P., 2015. "Multilevel innovation policy mix: A closer look at state policies that augment the federal SBIR program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 1387-1402.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:8:p:1796-1813. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.