Does Co-Creation Affect the Adoption of IT-Enabled Solutions? The Case of a Mobile Application for Emergency Preparedness

Abstract

Co-creation has been increasingly advocated by both scholars and practitioners in the public sector to enable the development of information technologies driven by citizens’ needs. Despite other potential advantages, it is not clear whether co-creation actually influences the adoption of IT-enabled solutions. The current knowledge about the effects of co-creation processes in the public sector is especially limited in non-urban environments. Based on a case study of the development of a mobile app for emergency preparedness and response in a rural town, the results of this study show that citizens play an important role in co-creation by identifying unique challenges for using the app. Local leadership plays a key role in the recruiting of participants, while professionals’ facilitation and openness are key during the co-designing of the app. Overall, the co-creation process increased citizens’ perceived ease of use and facilitated their adoption of the app.