IT consumerization under more difficult conditions – Insights from German local governments

Niehaves B, Köffer S, Ortbach K

Abstract
Public sector organizations work under more difficultconditions, when intending to embrace IT consumerization,defined as the diffusion of consumer IT in the workplace.There is an observable lack in current literature with respect toparticular factors that influence consumer IT adoption by localgovernments. Our paper aims to investigate these aspects indetail. We apply an inductive design for our study, in form of amultiple-case study with two German local governments. Fromthe case data we were able to identify five major factors thatinfluence the adoption and diffusion of consumer IT in thepublic sector. This paper contributes to a better understandingof the impact organizational characteristics may have on theadoption of consumer IT for work purposes. We think that ourresults provide promising insights into underlying factors thatcomplicate the exploitations of IT consumerization asopportunity for both increasing work efficiency and creatingmore innovative work environments in the public sector.

Keywords
AgeGov