Abstract: Public data authorized operation in China remains in an exploratory phase, facing multiple challenges such as incomplete institutional frameworks and underdeveloped market mechanisms. Clarifying its resistance mechanisms and implementation dilemmas, and exploring systematic optimisation paths, holds significant theoretical and practical importance for advancing public data authorized operation. Existing studies have mainly focused on macro-level policy and normative analysis, while paying relatively limited attention to the operational resistance and underlying mechanisms emerging from local implementation contexts. Based on field investigations and semi-structured interview data collected from 39 government departments across 12 prefecture-level cities in Anhui Province, this study employs grounded theory with the aim of addressing three questions: what key resistances local governments face in promoting public data authorized operation, how these resistances interact and form a mutually reinforcing transmission mechanism, and how targeted relief paths can be developed. The findings indicate that the resistance to public data authorized operation is mainly reflected in five dimensions: security and compliance constraints, blurred institutional boundaries and ambiguous responsibilities, technical foundations and data governance bottlenecks, organisational capacity and institutional mechanism constraints, and difficulties in market supply and value realisation. Among these, security risk constitutes the core logic and is transmitted to the market through institutional, technical and organisational support layers, resulting in impeded market operation, while insufficient market feedback further intensifies risk concerns. To address the above resistances, the paper proposes a dual-driven relief path integrating management system optimization and technological system enhancement, providing an empirical basis and theoretical explanation for understanding the local implementation dilemmas and mechanism formation of public data authorized operation, as well as policy implications for related institutional improvement and practical implementation.

Key words: Public data authorized operation, Grounded theory, Security risk, Resistance mechanism, Management and technology collaboration