Adoption of Enterprise Social Networking Tool: a Case Study

Abstract

Increased usage of social media and continuing development of information and communication technologies has led to the emergence of enterprise social networking (ESN) tools: private social networks created for use within organizations. A growing number of companies worldwide (including in Lithuania) are implementing this new tool, however, in order to bring significant and positive changes, enterprise social networking has to be adopted individually by its intended users, which is not always the case. Despite a vast amount of existing innovation adoption research, a significant number of implementation failures still occurs. We believe this is due to a lack of knowledge about the particular innovation at hand and about the particularities of its adoption process. The purpose of our study was to research the adoption process of enterprise social networking tool, with the following objectives of research: 1) provide a comprehensive view of ESN and its use in organizational setting; 2) analyse existing information and communication technology adoption models, with the focus on social networking; 3) prepare a theoretical framework based on scientific literature analysis for conducting a case study of ESN tool Yammer adoption; 4) determine factors affecting the adoption of Yammer in the selected organization and their importance for a successful implementation of ESN tools. A qualitative research strategy was chosen and a case study was conducted. To overcome case study limitations, qualitative and quantitative methods were combined: review of existing primary literature, analysis of existing archival organization’s records (previous internal employees’ inquiry results) and semi-structured interviews with the Experts were followed by creating a short on-line survey for all employees at the company. The research was carried out in the organization, where ESN tool Yammer was available for internal use for nine months, up until it was decided to discontinue its use due to a low rate of adoption. The study revealed significant results about the process of ESN tool adoption in organization: key points for Yammer adoption were its introduction by the top management, the way it was perceived by the employees, individual characteristics of adopters and the nature of the social structure within organization. These results partially corresponded with other studies done in regards to technology adoption process. This study provides a better understanding of enterprise social networking service adoption process within an organization and how it may lead to a more successful implementation of this type of tools in practice. It provides the answers for the organization which faced difficulties in adoption of Yammer to avoid repeat of failure with other ICT based tools. Furthermore, value was added to the information and communication technology adoption process scientific literature and deeper insights were gained into the main elements of successful adoption of ESN tools within the organization.