Determinants of multi-service smartcard success for smart cities development: A study based on citizens’ privacy and security perceptions

• Literature in smartcard adoption and continued use is reviewed.
• The role of smartcards in smart cities implementation is discussed.
• The smartcard and smart city plan of Zaragoza (Spain) are explained.
• An integrative research framework is proposed to explain smartcard continuance intentions.
• Results show usefulness and security as the key antecedents of continuance intentions.

Smart cities aim to increase their efficiency and quality-of-life thanks to technology-based services and collective intelligence. In this environment smartcards represent a strategic instrument to link citizens to public administration and local infrastructure to further advance on smart city plans. This research proposes a theoretical model and present privacy and security as key drivers of citizens’ intentions to continue using smartcards. The functional benefits (i.e. usefulness and ease-of-use), the level of personal interaction with local services, and the direct and moderating effects of socio-demographic variables complete our framework. The findings of an empirical study with smartcard users in Zaragoza (Spain) show usefulness and security as the main antecedents of continuance intentions. In turn, the influence of socio-demographic variables is not significant, which suggests that smartcards should focus on a wide-range of users. These results offer interesting implications and recommendations for public managers such as the need to guarantee the security of the transaction system and to expand the number of services and initiatives relaying on the smartcard service in order to gradually develop the smart city transformation.