Evolution of Enterprise Social Media Networks

Abstract

Humans, as social beings, regularly create social ties with each other. Hence, social networks of interconnected humans - such as friendship or collaboration networks - are commonplace. In this context, the proliferation of social media such as Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter have significantly influenced how humans form social ties, resulting in an abundance of social-media-based social networks, or more briefly, social media networks [3].In line with this development, a growing number of organizations are using enterprise social media (ESM) to support their internal communication and collaboration [2]. Analogous to public social media, the collective use of ESM creates ESM networks that connect employees across departments and hierarchical levels [4]. Consistent with this scenario, considerable research has examined the structures of ESM networks. However, few researchers have addressed the evolution of ESM networks - that is, how ESM network structures evolve over time [5].Disregarding such evolution has two main shortcomings [1]. First, it impedes studying how ESM network structures such as dyads emerge, are sustained, and dissolve over time. Second, it hampers the analysis of how external factors such as changes in ESM platforms or organizational measures affect ESM network structures. Addressing these shortcomings would enable insights to better manage ESM networks. For instance, these insights could be used to support employee socialization processes such as onboarding processes in ESM networks, or to adjust ESM platforms to optimize their associated ESM networks.Within this context, the current paper proposes a research project that would examine the evolution of ESM network structures by answering three research questions. First, what are the underlying processes of ESM network evolution from employee level to global network level? Second, what are the antecedents of these evolutionary processes? Third, what are the implications of these evolutionary processes for employees, groups, and organizations? To address these questions, the proposed research project will entail an initial literature review. The review will enable a summary of the status of research on ESM network evolution and the identification of knowledge gaps. The most relevant gaps will then be addressed through empirical studies to analyze specific processes of ESM network evolution. Each empirical study will apply a data-driven approach to reconstruct the observed longitudinal ESM networks using the databases of their underlying ESM platforms. This data thus obtained will be precise and can be studied via stochastic models for empirical social network analyses. Such analysis would address the statistical interdependencies in ESM networks.The research project proposed in this paper is aimed at contributing to a comprehensive understanding of ESM network evolution in general. The results could be used in further research, for instance, to develop ESM network evolution models [1]. Moreover, the findings may enable organizations to optimize their ESM networks [5].