Investigating Gov 2.0 Services: Leveraging On User Participation

Governments are making significant investments in information technology to transform the way in which they serve their stakeholders e.g., businesses and citizens. Going beyond early efforts of automating existing services, government agencies are seeking for opportunities to use IT to enhance citizen involvement and participation. With the advent of Web 2.0, Gov 2.0 has gained popularity with promises of co-creation of value with citizens and businesses and harnessing the power of mass collaboration. As a step towards a “Gov-for-you” orientation, government agencies have attempted to promote user participation in Gov2.0 activities. However, there is still a lack of understanding of how government agencies can facilitate businesses and citizens to co-create value. In addition, it is unclear if citizens and businesses will adopt these Gov2.0 services. With the limited understanding and research in this area, this paper proposes two models in response to the gaps. First, it applies the theoretical perspectives of resource-based view and value co-creation to obtain a deeper understanding of how government agencies can facilitate users (businesses and citizens) to participate. Second, we apply the perspective of service acceptance to explain the antecedents of adoption of Gov2.0 services. Together, these two models expect to inform research and practice on Gov2.0, an increasing trend in e-government.