Are Business Users Social? A Design Experiment Exploring Information Sharing in Enterprise Social Systems
Journal
Journal of information technology : JIT
ISSN
0268-3962
ISSN-Digital
1466-4437
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2016-06-24
Author(s)
Research Team
IWI1
Abstract
In recent years, social technology has changed the ways people collaborate and commu- nicate. With the blurring boundaries between work and personal life, business software vendors have begun to deliberate on the possibilities for enhancing the rather rigid and impersonal structures in enterprise systems (ES) by integrating social features. In doing so, they frequently assume that business users share the same interaction patterns as private users. In this paper, we challenge this belief and explore the factors that stimulate business users to share information in ES environments. By means of a design experiment, we show different use scenarios and explore business users' attitudes toward open and unconditional information sharing in ES. Our results demonstrate that business users are less ‘social' and that applying social features in ES is highly context dependent. Based on these findings, we offer recommendations for software vendors and researchers who are interested in the social enhancements of ES.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SoM - Business Innovation
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher place
Basingstoke
Volume
31
Number
2
Start page
101
End page
114
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
245600
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
FinalManuscript.pdf
Size
1.42 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5b59b82b1a4a90074d6aa6b6727c10d7