How and why Organisations Use Social Media: Five Use Types and their Relation to Absorptive Capacity

Authors

Daniel Schlagwein, UNSW Australia Business School, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaFollow
Monica Hu, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the relation between social media use and the absorptive capacity of organisations. Over the past 10 years, many organisations have systematically adopted social media. Trade press and consulting companies often claim that the systematic use of social media increases the performance of organisations. However, such claims are typically neither empirically grounded nor theoretically examined. In this paper, based on key informant interviews at 20 organisations, we examine these claims empirically and theoretically. Firstly, we examine the ways in which social media are used by organisations. We identify five different social media use types that support different organisational purposes (broadcast, dialogue, collaboration, knowledge management and sociability). Secondly, we analyse how these five social media use types relate to organisations' absorptive capacity. We find that particular social media use types (e.g., dialogue) support organisations' absorptive capacity and, ultimately, their performance although others (e.g., sociability) do not.

DOI

10.1057/jit.2016.7

Recommended Citation

Schlagwein, Daniel and Hu, Monica (2017) "How and why Organisations Use Social Media: Five Use Types and their Relation to Absorptive Capacity," Journal of Information Technology: Vol. 32: Iss. 2, Article 6.
DOI: 10.1057/jit.2016.7
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jit/vol32/iss2/6