Start Date
11-12-2016 12:00 AM
Description
The proliferation of enterprise social media (ESM) has created gaps in theorizing ESM users’ diverse motivations and usage patterns. Drawing specifically from the core-periphery model in the traditional online community literature, we propose a similar core-periphery structure in the ESM context, but also suggest a new class of users, that we refer to as promoters. Using cross-section log data from an ESM of a large multinational corporation and a mixed-method approach--including quantitative cluster analysis and qualitative interviews--our findings reveal that as expected ESMs reflect a core-periphery structure, however, nearly two-thirds of the users in the enterprise setting represent two novel user groups, namely promoters or super-promoters. These groups utilize the platform primarily for contributing self-presentational and self-promoting content without consuming or sharing the content created by others. The findings from our interviews further shed light onto the diverse set of motivations that underpin the usage behaviors of these user groups.
Recommended Citation
van Osch, Wietske; Bulgurcu, Burcu; and Kane, Gerald, "Classifying Enterprise Social Media Users: A Mixed-Method Study of Organizational Social Media Use" (2016). ICIS 2016 Proceedings. 13.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2016/SocialMedia/Presentations/13
Classifying Enterprise Social Media Users: A Mixed-Method Study of Organizational Social Media Use
The proliferation of enterprise social media (ESM) has created gaps in theorizing ESM users’ diverse motivations and usage patterns. Drawing specifically from the core-periphery model in the traditional online community literature, we propose a similar core-periphery structure in the ESM context, but also suggest a new class of users, that we refer to as promoters. Using cross-section log data from an ESM of a large multinational corporation and a mixed-method approach--including quantitative cluster analysis and qualitative interviews--our findings reveal that as expected ESMs reflect a core-periphery structure, however, nearly two-thirds of the users in the enterprise setting represent two novel user groups, namely promoters or super-promoters. These groups utilize the platform primarily for contributing self-presentational and self-promoting content without consuming or sharing the content created by others. The findings from our interviews further shed light onto the diverse set of motivations that underpin the usage behaviors of these user groups.