Intrinsic need satisfaction, emotional attachment, and value co-creation behaviors of seniors in using modified mobile government

Abstract

Although mobile-government-for-elders has the advantages of improving social equity, narrowing the digital divide, and reducing service costs, most previous studies on mobile government (m-government) have ignored the elderly. Meanwhile, most previous studies on the elderly regard them as silent users. Furthermore, the antecedents of seniors using the modified m-government for value co-creation have been poorly investigated. To bridge this literature gap, we developed a model based on the self-regulation framework. This model examined the impacts of intrinsic need satisfaction on value co-creation behaviors during seniors' use of mobile-government-for-elders. We surveyed 415 elderly users who used mobile-government-for-elders. The results showed that seniors' intrinsic need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) positively influenced emotional attachment to modified m-government. Emotional attachment positively influenced seniors' value co-creation behaviors (feedback, advocacy, and information sharing) on modified m-government. In addition, trust in government positively moderated the relationship between emotional attachment and feedback behavior, emotional attachment and advocacy behavior, and emotional attachment and information-sharing behavior. Our findings can help managers and developers of mobile-government-for-elders take appropriate strategies to improve the value co-creation behaviors of elderly users.