Aedo Cuevas, IgnacioDíaz, PalomaCarroll, John M.Convertino, GregorioRosson, Mary Beth2010-04-262010-04-262010-01Information Processing and Management, 2010, vol. 46, n. 1, p. 11-210306-4573https://hdl.handle.net/10016/780111 pages, 4 figures.Response to large-scale emergencies is a cooperative process that requires the active and coordinated participation of a variety of functionally independent agencies operating in adjacent regions. In practice, this essential cooperation is sometimes not attained or is reduced due to poor information sharing, non-fluent communication flows, and lack of coordination. We report an empirical study of IT-mediated cooperation among Spanish response agencies and we describe the challenges of adoption, information sharing, communication flows, and coordination among agencies that do not share a unity of command. We analyze three strategies aimed at supporting acceptance and surmounting political, organizational and personal distrust or skepticism: participatory design, advanced collaborative tools inducing cognitive absorption, and end-user communities of practice.application/pdfeng© ElsevierEmergency management information systemsIS acceptanceParticipatory designresearch articleInformática10.1016/j.ipm.2009.07.002open access11121Information Processing and Management46