Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to adopt the concept of value fusion to identify and describe the critical dimensions of how sustainability value is created by the use of mobile technologies by citizens, public transport authorities, government and other stakeholders simultaneously.

Design/methodology/approach: A single-case study of Changzhou BRT system is conducted in order to trace value creation in complex urban public transit context in China and discuss the meaning of value emerged through mobile technologies and networked to customers and public transport authorities.

Findings: The study will reveal the combination of virtual, velocity, large volume, and variety source information characteristics of intelligent BRT system enables public transit authorities and consumers to interact and communicate, produce and consume benefits, and create value in new ways that achieves value fusion. The value fusion results from customer and public transit authorities: individually or collectively; actively and passively; interactively or in aggregation contributing to a mobile network; and in real time.

Research limitations/implications: As with single-case study research, the paper is unable to prove empirical generalization; further comparative case study is needed in this area. Moreover, the paper takes from customer and firm perspective; future studies could approach the topic from a broad stakeholder perspective.

Contribution/value: This study is novel in several respects: it provides a systematic empirical analysis of the value emerged through networked mobile technologies and addresses their effects on urban transit sustainable development, planning, decision-making, problem solving, and governance.

Practical implications: Addressing the barriers to implementing sustainability innovation in public transit service towards value fusion, therefore, requires change to take place through the entire system – from improvement of value creation ways by active involvement of citizen to the integration of public knowledge and skills into public transit decision-making.