Influence of user participation during the development of crisis management information systems in Tunisian firms

Participative decision theory suggests that a development process based on users participation can lead to the success of computerised applications, such as crisis management information systems, developed in the firm. Facing controversies of research results, Igbaria et al. (1996), Anandarajan et al. (2002) and Hartwich and Barki (1994) had suggested that user's involvement has a mediating effect in the relation between users participation and applications success. Lind et al. (1990) and Hunton and Gibson (1999) have introduced the effect of user's cognition on applications success. Therefore, the objective of this research is to examine the mediating effect of user's involvement and user's cognition in the relation between user's participation during the development of the crisis management information systems and the success of these applications. Based on a sample of 50 users of 32 computerised applications, empirical findings show that increasing users' participation during the development of crisis management information systems affect their perceptions of the development process's fairness which improve the use of these systems and enhance users' satisfaction.

Keywords: user participation, crisis management, information systems, user satisfaction, structural equation modelling, Tunisia, emergency management