Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a definition of enterprise social media and provide a rough historical account of the various avenues through which these technologies have entered and continue to enter the workplace.
Abstract: Social media are increasingly implemented in work organizations as tools for communication among employees. It is important that we develop an understanding of how they enable and constrain the communicative activities through which work is accomplished because it is these very dynamics that constitute and perpetuate organizations. We begin by offering a definition of enterprise social media and providing a rough historical account of the various avenues through which these technologies have entered and continue to enter the workplace. We also review areas of research covered by papers in this special issue and papers on enterprise social media published elsewhere to take stock of the current state of out knowledge and to propose directions for future research.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: A theory of communication visibility based on a field study of the implementation of a new enterprise social networking site in a large financial services organization suggests that once invisible communication occurring between others in the organization becomes visible for third parties, those third parties could improve their metaknowledge i.e., knowledge of who knows what and who knows whom.
Abstract: This paper offers a theory of communication visibility based on a field study of the implementation of a new enterprise social networking site in a large financial services organization. The emerging theory suggests that once invisible communication occurring between others in the organization becomes visible for third parties, those third parties could improve their metaknowledge i.e., knowledge of who knows what and who knows whom. Communication visibility, in this case made possible by the enterprise social networking site, leads to enhanced awareness of who knows what and whom through two interrelated mechanisms: message transparency and network translucence. Seeing the contents of other's messages helps third-party observers make inferences about coworkers' knowledge. Tangentially, seeing the structure of coworkers' communication networks helps third-party observers make inferences about those with whom coworkers regularly communicate. The emerging theory further suggests that enhanced metaknowledge can lead to more innovative products and services and less knowledge duplication if employees learn to work in new ways. By learning vicariously rather than through experience, workers can more effectively recombine existing ideas into new ideas and avoid duplicating work. Moreover, they can begin to proactively aggregate information perceived daily rather than engaging in reactive search after confronting a problem. I discuss the important implications of this emerging theory of communication visibility for work in the knowledge economy.
530 citations
TL;DR: This study examines how live streaming influences social commerce customers’ purchase intentions in China by building a theoretical model from the perspective of IT affordance and empirically measure the model by surveying customers who have shopped via live streaming shopping platforms.
317 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the potential implications of social media use for organizing are discussed, and a theoretical framework based on the concept of affordances is proposed to analyze the potential benefits of using social media for organizing.
Abstract: Social media—computer-mediated tools of the Web 2.0 generation that make it possible for anyone to create, circulate, share, and exchange information in a variety of formats and with multiple communities—have become increasingly widespread in today’s organizations. Social media have started to affect multiple organizational phenomena and processes. This article pursues three interrelated goals. First, it provides a theoretical framework, based upon the concept of affordances, to theorize the potential implications of social media use for organizing. Second, it reviews existing scholarship on social media and organizing, highlighting social media diffusion, use, and implications for organizational processes of communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. Third, it relies upon the affordance perspective and existing scholarship to articulate an agenda for future research on social media and organizing, advocating for a diversification of the phenomena under study and for greater diversity and innovativeness in the methodological approaches devised to investigate these phenomena.
280 citations
TL;DR: The argument proffered in this paper is that use of enterprise social networking technologies can increase the accuracy of people's metaknowledge (knowledge of "who knows what" and " who knows whom") at work.
Abstract: The argument proffered in this paper is that use of enterprise social networking technologies can increase the accuracy of people's metaknowledge (knowledge of "who knows what" and "who knows whom") at work. The results of a quasi-natural field experiment in which only one of two matched-sample groups within a large financial services firm was given access to the enterprise social networking technology for six months revealed that by making people's communications with specific partners visible to others in the organization, the technology enabled observers to become aware of the communications occurring amongst their coworkers and to make inferences about what and whom those coworkers knew based on the contents of the messages they sent and to whom they were sent. Consequently only individuals in the group that used the social networking technology for six months improved the accuracy of their metaknowledge (a 31% improvement in knowledge of who knows what and an 88% improvement in knowledge of who knows whom). There were no improvements in the other group over the same time period. Based on these findings, how technologically enabled "ambient awareness"--awareness of ambient communications occurring amongst others in the organization--can be an important antecedent for knowledge acquisition is discussed.
261 citations
TL;DR: The empirical analysis reveals that knowledge self-efficacy, social interaction ties, and the norm of reciprocity positively influence the tertius iungens orientation and knowledge-sharing activities in social media, while enjoyment of helping does not have a significant influence.
242 citations
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1991
TL;DR: This work has shown that legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice is not confined to midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, non-drinking alcoholics and the like.
Abstract: In this important theoretical treatist, Jean Lave, anthropologist, and Etienne Wenger, computer scientist, push forward the notion of situated learning - that learning is fundamentally a social process. The authors maintain that learning viewed as situated activity has as its central defining characteristic a process they call legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). Learners participate in communities of practitioners, moving toward full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community. LPP provides a way to speak about crucial relations between newcomers and old-timers and about their activities, identities, artefacts, knowledge and practice. The communities discussed in the book are midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, and recovering alcoholics, however, the process by which participants in those communities learn can be generalised to other social groups.
43,846 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
Abstract: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
31,693 citations
TL;DR: This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright and which are likely to be copyrighted.
Abstract: Social network sites SNSs are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research
14,912 citations
TL;DR: A classification of Social Media is provided which groups applications currently subsumed under the generalized term into more specific categories by characteristic: collaborative projects, blogs, content communities, social networking sites, virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds.
13,932 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: In this paper, the Tertius Gaudens Entrepreneurs Secondary Holes Structural Autonomy (SSA) model is used to control the number of holes in a network.
Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction 1. THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF COMPETITION Opportunity and Capital Information Structural Holes Control and the Tertius Gaudens Entrepreneurs Secondary Holes Structural Autonomy Summary 2. FORMALIZING THE ARGUMENT Network Data Redundancy Constraint Hole Signature Structural Autonomy Summary 3. TURNING A PROFIT Product Networks and Market Profit The Study Population Hole Effects Market Hole Signatures Summary Appendix: Weighing Alternatives 4. GETTING AHEAD Contact Networks and Manager Achievement The Study Population Hole Effects Hierarchy Institutional Holes Selecting a Network Summary Appendix A: Weighing Alternatives Appendix B: Causal Order 5. PLAYER-STRUCTURE DUALITY Structural Unit of Analysis Players and Structures Escape from Attributes No Escape Summary 6. COMMIT AND SURVIVE Holes and Heterogeneity Interface and the Commit Hypothesis Population Ecology and the Survival Hypothesis Summary 7. STRATEGIC EMBEDDING AND INSTITUTIONAL RESIDUE The Other Tertius Strategy Hypothesis Formal Organization as Social Residue Personality as Emotional Residue Summary Notes References Index
10,616 citations