A Collaborative Consumption Digital Platform for Government Organizations using Design Science

Abstract

The growth of digital technologies that enable the sharing of resources, underutilized assets, and services, is bringing new ways of shared consumption commonly called the “sharing economy” or “collaborative consumption”. This study used a design science paradigm and the elaborated action design method (eADR) to design and develop a “collaborative consumption” (CC) digital artifact under the government to government (G2G) domain towards improving resource limitations in developing country contexts. The Ethiopian WoredaNet government project was used as a case study. The new artifact was evaluated using the post-study system usability framework ( n = 35) to reveal its practical usefulness in improving resource limitations. A new design principle was also elicited: intentionally elicit user responses for unfamiliar digital innovations. The study recommends for policymakers of low-income countries (LICs) to create new sharing-capable policies in the G2G domain, and consider extending it towards non-government organizations and citizens. Overall, the findings contribute to Information Systems discourse and digital government practice by identifying the importance of novel CC digital platforms to optimize government resources in LICs. The study also contributes to the eADR method by identifying that the action research cycle is not a strict requirement but helpful as an entry point into design science efforts.