Abstract
PurposeEnterprise social media (ESM) platforms are rapidly diffusing in the business context because they can bring substantial benefits to companies by enhancing their knowledge management (KM) processes. However, such benefits materialize only if active employee participation is ensured. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how individual employees use an ESM platform to assist their knowledge-related activities. This paper contributes to this topic by proposing a classification of ESM users based on two dimensions: frequency and type (active or passive) of use.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents the results of a survey of 262 employees of an international engineering service company that has adopted an ESM platform to support its KM processes. Statistical methods (e.g. ANOVA, Tukey’s b) were applied to verify the usefulness of the proposed typology and identify the main aspects that characterize the different user groups.FindingsThe survey results confirm the existence of different types of ESM users and provide the empirical basis for developing a bi-dimensional classification from which four user groups were derived and characterized: frequent contributors, sporadic contributors, frequent lurkers and sporadic lurkers.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation is that only one company in one sector with specific knowledge needs and capabilities was investigated.Practical implicationsThe study provides useful suggestions for how to promote the use of an ESM and particularly for how to encourage less frequent and less active users to increase their participation in a platform.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to a better understanding of how employees approach ESM by identifying factors that characterize different user groups.
Highlights
Enterprise social media (ESM) are social media platforms arranged for use by a company’s employees (Leonardi et al, 2013; Hacker, 2017)
In this paper, based on an analysis of relevant literature and the results of a survey conducted among 262 employees of an international project-based service company, we propose a new ESM user typology
We proposed a bi-dimensional classification of ESM users and apply it to analyzing the case company that adopted an ESM platform to support employees’ knowledge management (KM) activities
Summary
Enterprise social media (ESM) are social media platforms arranged for use by a company’s employees (Leonardi et al, 2013; Hacker, 2017). Many scholars emphasize that ESM can bring substantial benefits to companies and enhance their knowledge management (KM) processes (Nisar et al, 2019). Various studies affirmed that ESM platforms can play a crucial role in facilitating internal knowledge sharing and communication for organizations (Razmerita et al, 2016). This is why ESM has attracted significant attention from professional and academic fields (Ahmed et al, 2019). Despite scholars’ opinions, the introduction of Kathrin Kirchner is based at the Department of Management, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark. Rasmus Jørgensen is based at the Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark. Ettore Bolisani and Enrico Scarso are both based at the DTG, Universitadegli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy
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