The impact of enterprise social media platforms on knowledge sharing

Online communities come with real-world consequences for individuals and societies

Online communities have become a central part of the internet. Understanding what motivates users to join these communities, and how they affect them and others, spans various psychological domains, including organizational psychology, political and social psychology, and clinical and health psychology. We focus on online communities that are exemplary for three domains: work, hate, and addictions. We review the risks that emerge from these online communities but also recognize the opportunities that work and behavioral addiction communities present for groups and individuals. With the continued evolution of online spheres, online communities are likely to have an increasingly significant role in all spheres of life, ranging from personal to professional and from individual to societal. Psychological research provides critical insights into understanding the formation of online communities, and the implications for individuals and society. To counteract risks, it needs to identify opportunities for prevention and support.

Sharing or Hiding? Exploring the Influence of Social Cognition and Emotion on Employee Knowledge Behaviors within Enterprise Social Media

As emerging knowledge management platforms, enterprise social media (ESM) provide an important way for employees to engage in knowledge sharing and information communication within their organization. However, the question of how to encourage employees to engage in continuous knowledge sharing rather than knowledge hiding on ESM has not received sufficient attention from scholars. In contrast to previous studies that focused on a single theory perspective and a single knowledge behavior, in this study, we took a user cognition and emotion perspective and constructed a mechanism model for the impact of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding among employees on ESM based on social cognition theory and emotion as social information theory. A total of 240 valid questionnaires were collected and used to empirically test the model. The results indicate that reciprocity and outcome expectancy have a significant positive effect on employees' knowledge-sharing behavior, while reciprocity and trust have a significant negative effect on employees' knowledge-hiding behavior. Positive emotions play a positive (enhancing) moderating role on the path between outcome expectancy and knowledge-sharing behavior, while negative emotions play a negative (weakening) moderating role on the path between reciprocity and knowledge-hiding behavior, as well as between trust and knowledge-hiding behavior. By incorporating employee emotions into the framework of social cognition's impact on employee knowledge behavior, this study enriches theories related to enterprise social media, knowledge management, and user behaviors. Our research findings have practical implications for guiding employees to engage in positive knowledge sharing and reducing knowledge hiding on enterprise social media.

Knowledge-intensive teamwork development through social media adoption after the COVID-19 pandemic in higher education institutions

Although knowledge drives organizational growth, limited teamwork skills have hindered effective knowledge sharing and utilization across departments and individuals in higher education institutions (HEIs). Thus, this paper develops a pertinent knowledge-intensive teamworking model for HEIs. Educational background, leadership, and social media adoption were independent variables, while knowledge acquisition, development, application, revision, and knowledge-intensive teamwork were dependent variables. Using an online questionnaire, a quantitative investigation of 918 people across different HEIs tested hypotheses based on PLS-SEM findings. Results showed that educational background, leadership, and social media adoption are integral enablers in smoothing knowledge management operations, while the synergistic combination of process phases drives teamwork. Consequently, outcomes establish foundations for fostering a continuous learning culture, accountability, and cooperation in HEIs.

Empirical Investigation of How Social Media Usage Enhances Employee Creativity: The Role of Knowledge Management Behavior

Employee use of social media in the workplace has become a common phenomenon. Thus, how to effectively manage and utilize employee social media usage in the workplace has become a new issue. This study examines how employees' work-related and social-related social media usage at work can present different impacts upon their creativity through knowledge management behaviors. To test the research model, this study collected data from 425 employees in various industries in China and utilized a covariance-based structural equation model (CB-SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results suggested that work-related social media usage enhances employee creativity through promoting knowledge sharing and restraining knowledge manipulation. On the contrary, social-related social media usage cannot indirectly influence employee creativity through knowledge management behaviors. This study contributes to the literature on social media research by providing theoretical arguments on how employee use of social media for different purposes affects their creativity. Furthermore, this research offers the insight of the different paths of work-related and social-related social media usage that influence employee creativity rather than treating social media usage as a unitary concept and linking it simply with work results. This study also explores the role of three knowledge management behaviors in the relationship between social media usage and employee creativity.

Enterprise social media and organizational learning capability: mediated moderation effect of social capital and informal learning

Purpose

With the increasing prevalence of social media in everyday life, scholars have argued the need of exploring enterprise social media (ESM) for workplace outcomes. This study investigates the relationship between ESM use and organizational learning capability (OLC) by focusing on the mediating role of informal learning (INFL) and the moderating role of social capital (SC).

Design/methodology/approach

The paper developed and tested a mediated moderated model explaining the impact of ESM on OLC. The study used temporally separated data of 281 respondents collected in two waves from firms in India that use organizationally facilitated ESM platforms for internal workplace communication.

Findings

An analysis of temporally separated two-wave data indicates that INFL mediates the relationship between ESM use and OLC. Also, SC is found to moderate the effect of ESM use on INFL, and INFL mediated the moderation effect of SC on relationship between ESM use and OLC such that the relationship will be stronger when employees have a higher rather than lower level of SC.

Research limitations/implications

The study theoretically contributes and extends the literature on ESM and learning in organizations. The study provides important practical implications to support and institutionalize learning at work. The results of the study provide evidence that ESM are not just networking tools but a platform for learning. Findings of the study suggest that ESM can be one such tool to promote and capture employee INFL. The results also show that SC plays a critical role in predicting the extent to which employees learn informally using ESM, thereby building OLC. This result suggests that organizations should make conscious and concerted efforts to build employee SC. The above findings also have interesting implications for learning and development (L&D) and information technology (IT) managers who wish to implement technology for collaborative purposes.

Originality/value

Addressing the underlying processes that explain how ESM positively influence OLC was highlighted as a critical research gap that needs attention. The paper is novel in its approach as it provides empirical evidence for the relationship between ESM and its impact on employee outcomes, an area pertinent in today's digital economy, however, received sparse attention by management scholars so far. It also provides empirical grounds toward a meaningful shift in the social media discourse – transition from being traditionally viewed primarily as “a networking platform” to “a learning platform.”

Knowledge integration for resilience among multinational SMEs amid the COVID-19: from the view of global digital platforms

Purpose

Multinational small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly participating in cross-border digital platforms – especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, knowledge integration (KI) has become more and more important. In fact, it has been deemed by many as the key to organizational resilience. Given this burgeoning phenomenon, this study aims to explore a path for improving the resilience of multinational SMEs. Through this process, this study also finds a relationship between the KI processes associated with adopting global digital platforms and the resiliency of local–global businesses. Hence, in part, this paper also explores the effectiveness of all these mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the stepwise regression method in Stata 16.0 to analyze the direct effects of both horizontal and vertical KI processes on the resilience of local–global businesses. Additionally, t-tests were also used to compare the differences in coefficients between the mechanisms. The sample analyzed comprised data on multinational manufacturing SMEs in the Yangtze River Delta region of China who are using global digital platforms.

Findings

The KI processes of these firms, both horizontal and vertical, positively correlate to resilience. Horizontal KI processes more efficiently increase the resilience of global businesses, whereas vertical processes more efficiently increase the resilience of local businesses.

Originality/value

First, this study provides insights into how multinational SMEs can improve their resilience in a crisis. In addition to adding to the knowledge of KI processes, this expands the KM literature on pandemics. Second, by creating two KI processes based on global digital platforms and discussing their influence on resilience, this research deepens the understanding of affordance in the KM literature. Third, focusing on the KI research stream, the results shed light on how KI processes might occur and how firms develop their KI processes.

The Impact of Social Media on Employee Mental Health and Behavior Based on the Context of Intelligence-Driven Digital Data

With the rapid development and widespread popularity of the Internet, employee social media use at work has become an increasingly common phenomenon in organizations. This paper analyzes 105 related papers from the Social Science Citation Index in Web of Science through Scoping Review to clarify the definition and characteristics of employee social media use and the types of social media and summarizes the current research methods. Then, the reasons for employees' willingness and refusal to use social media and the positive and negative effects of employee social media use on employees' work attitudes, behaviors, and performance are discussed. Then, the mediating variables, moderating variables, and theoretical frameworks used in the relevant studies are described, and a comprehensive model of employee social media use is constructed. Finally, this paper indicates future research directions based on the latest research results in 2020-2022, i.e., improving research methods, increasing antecedent studies, expanding consequence research, and expanding mediating variables, moderating variables, and theoretical perspectives.

The role of affordances in continuance and additional purchase intention: The case of internet banking application in Vietnam

This research examined the role of Information Technology (IT) affordance, which affects the value-in-use of Internet banking, and subsequently, the users’ continuance and additional purchase intention, with a specific focus on Internet banking applications in Vietnam. The analysis was based on data from 318 Internet banking users in Vietnam. The online survey is launched purposely to test samples’ online behavior and different online devices they respond to. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural equation modeling (SEM) are used for testing the proposed hypotheses. This study found that three characteristics of affordance (i.e., visibility, persistence, and association) are positively associated with value-in-use (i.e., experience and relationship), which has a positive impact on enhancing the continuance intention and the additional purchase intention of users.

The findings of this study deliver constructive ideas for banks in Vietnam for prolonging the user intention of customers, in terms of enhancing the value-in-use of their banking applications, and they target mainly the IT affordance related to the technical aspects.

Modeling the influence of individual differences on knowledge hiding

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the longitudinal influence of gender, age, education level, organizational tenure and emotional intelligence on three dimensions of knowledge hiding over time.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal study using two-wave data sets of 390 employees in Chinese enterprises was conducted to build fixed, continuous and interacting models for investigating the effects of individual differences on the processes of knowledge hiding over time.

Findings

This research uncovered the changing relationships of individual differences on knowledge-hiding behaviors over time, such that age correlates with rationalized hiding in the interacting model, indicating younger employees are less likely to choose rationalized hiding when facing situation changes; and education level, organizational tenure and emotional intelligence moderate knowledge hiding over time, implying individuals with better education, longer tenure and higher emotional intelligence tend to exhibit more rationalized hiding behaviors rather than evasive hiding and playing dumb behaviors at Time 2.

Originality/value

One of the novel contributions of this study is that it tests the longitudinal effect of individual differences on knowledge hiding, providing a vertical perspective, and thereby contributing to the body of knowledge in knowledge management. The study also constructs fixed, continuous and interacting models to measure the covering longitudinal influences, thus making the research original.

Understanding social media users' engagement intention toward emergency information: the role of experience and information usefulness in a reciprocity framework

Purpose

The aim of this study is to investigate how social media users' experience of seeking emergency information affects their engagement intention toward emergency information with a reciprocity framework integrated with information adoption model.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on reciprocity theory, indebtedness theory, and information adoption model, an integrative research model is developed. This study employs a questionnaire survey to collect data of 325 social media users in China. Structural equation modeling analyses are conducted to test the proposed theoretical model.

Findings

Social media users' experience of seeking emergency information has a strong effect on their perceived information usefulness and indebtedness, while perceived information usefulness further influences community norm, indebtedness, and engagement intention. The authors also found that perceived information usefulness mediates the relationships between experience of seeking emergency information and community norm/indebtedness.

Originality/value

This study offers a new perspective to explain social media users' engagement intention in the diffusion of emergency information. This study contributes to the literature by extending the theoretical framework of reciprocity and applying it to the context of emergency information diffusion. The findings of this study could benefit the practitioners who wish to leverage social media tools for emergency response purposes.

What role does enterprise social network play? A study on enterprise social network use, knowledge acquisition and innovation performance

Purpose

In order to explore the role of enterprise social network (ESN), this study examines how the different dimensions of ESN use – within teams and across teams – facilitate knowledge acquisition in organizations and how knowledge acquisition, in turn, impacts exploitative and exploratory innovation performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study applied the survey approach to collect a valid sample of 150 Chinese companies that had innovation activities and were using ESN. The partial least squares (PLS) technique was used for data analysis to test the research model and hypotheses.

Findings

ESN use within teams has a positive impact on knowledge depth and knowledge breadth, and ESN use across teams has a positive impact on knowledge depth. Knowledge depth and knowledge breadth are both beneficial for innovation performance. The two types of ESN use have different impacts on knowledge depth and knowledge breadth; moreover, knowledge depth and knowledge breadth have different impacts on innovation performance. Specifically, the impacts of ESN use within teams and across teams on exploitative innovation performance are mediated by knowledge depth; the impact of ESN use within teams on exploratory innovation performance is mediated by knowledge breadth.

Originality/value

This paper can enhance the understanding of the importance of ESN use and ESN's role in facilitating knowledge acquisition and innovation performance.

Benefits and drawbacks of communication visibility: from vicarious learning and supplemental work to knowledge reuse and overload

Purpose

This study aims to examine some of the benefits and drawbacks of communication visibility. Specifically, building on communication visibility theory, the authors study how and why message transparency and network translucence may increase knowledge reuse and perceived overload through behavioral responses of vicarious learning and technology-assisted supplemental work.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on survey data obtained from 1,127 employees of a global company operating in the industrial machinery sector, the authors used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized model.

Findings

The results demonstrate that the two aspects of communication visibility yield somewhat differential benefits and drawbacks in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload, through vicarious learning and supplemental work practices.

Research limitations/implications

The results demonstrate the relationship between different aspects of communication visibility and knowledge reuse, specifically through vicarious learning. Furthermore, the findings highlight a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work. Overall, network translucence seems more beneficial compared to message transparency in terms of knowledge reuse and communication overload.

Originality/value

The study connects with recent work on communication visibility by distinguishing differential direct and indirect effects of message transparency and network translucence. It also extends this work by testing relationships between communication visibility and a potential drawback of visibility – communication overload – specifically through technology-assisted supplemental work.

Supporting participatory innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative study of enterprise social media use

Purpose

The need for accelerating innovation is exacerbated as organizations struggle to either adapt or perish in this unforgiving condition due to the COVID-19 disruption. To address this issue, many organizations have embraced employee-driven participatory innovation to survive and thrive albeit the uncertainties. This study aims to investigate the role of enterprise social media (ESM) in supporting and facilitating these efforts.

Design/methodology/approach

This study first identified the underlying mechanisms that allow ESM use to foster and maintain participatory innovation and then reexamined how these mechanisms played out during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The data was collected through a questionnaire in two phases, before and during work-from-home mandates, and the results were analyzed and compared to capture similarities and differences.

Findings

The results revealed that innovation culture and management support mediated the effects of ESM use on three measures of innovation productivity in both conditions. Interestingly, the effect of ESM use was more prominent in driving innovation in the work-from-home condition. This effect was not limited to the direct effect of ESM use on innovation productivity but on innovation culture and management support as well.

Originality/value

The results suggest that ESM offer a potentially useful path to support and enable employees to participate in the innovation processes, especially when they work remotely or in a distributed team. More generally, this paper should be of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in understanding, implementing and evaluating enterprise social software applications and encouraging employee-driven participatory innovation.

A Moderated Mediation Model Linking Excessive Enterprise Social Media Usage With Job Performance

Despite the larger interest of information systems scholars in excessive ESM usage, little is known about how excessive ESM usage is related to employee performance. This study focused on excessive ESM usage and investigated its impact on employee performance. Based on the status quo perspective with the integration of social cognitive theory, this study first proposed that excessive ESM usage has a positive and negative relationship with employee performance through ESM usage regret and ESM usage inertia. Furthermore, COVID-19 threat moderates the direct relationship between excessive ESM usage and ESM usage regret, and ESM usage inertia. Time-lagged, multi-source data collected in China support most of our hypothesis. Results reveal that excessive ESM has a positive and negative indirect effect on employee performance via ESM usage regret and ESM usage inertia. Furthermore, the COVID-19 threat moderates the positive direct effect of excessive ESM usage on ESM usage inertia. In the later section, theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

Knowledge Management Model for Smart Campus in Indonesia

The application of smart campuses (SC), especially at higher education institutions (HEI) in Indonesia, is very diverse, and does not yet have standards. As a result, SC practice is spread across various areas in an unstructured and uneven manner. KM is one of the critical components of SC. However, the use of KM to support SC is less clearly discussed. Most implementations and assumptions still consider the latest IT application as the SC component. As such, this study aims to identify the components of the KM model for SC. This study used a systematic literature review (SLR) technique with PRISMA procedures, an analytical hierarchy process, and expert interviews. SLR is used to identify the components of the conceptual model, and AHP is used for model priority component analysis. Interviews were used for validation and model development. The results show that KM, IoT, and big data have the highest trends. Governance, people, and smart education have the highest trends. IT is the highest priority component. The KM model for SC has five main layers grouped in phases of the system cycle. This cycle describes the organization’s intellectual ability to adapt in achieving SC indicators. The knowledge cycle at HEIs focuses on education, research, and community service.

Impact of Personality Traits on Knowledge Hiding: A Comparative Study on Technology-Based Online and Physical Education

Knowledge hiding has been a variable of interest that has led to major intangible losses to organizations, especially in this pandemic era when everything has shifted to online platforms and social media. Knowledge hiding has taken a new turn into the field of knowledge management. Moreover, the major players in knowledge hiding are the personality characteristics of individuals that have now found a way of expression without coming into the spotlight. This study is a necessary one in this time of online working environments where the role of personality traits and psychological ownership has been explored to understand their impact on the knowledge hiding within the organizations of China, and furthermore, to understand what role social status plays in moderating these relationships. The sampling design used is convenient random sampling with a sample size of 298 managers. This study has used the software Smart-PLS 3.3.3 for analyzing the data. The data relied on and was validated using preliminary tests of reliability and discriminant and convergent validities using the measurement model algorithm. Further, the partial least square technique was used to find the equation modeling for the variables, with the help of a structural model algorithm using 500 iterations for bootstrapping. The findings of the current study show that the personality traits of the "BIG FIVE" model positively predict knowledge hiding, except for openness to experience. At the same time, psychological ownership plays a partial mediating role.

Team Social Media Usage and Team Creativity: The Role of Team Knowledge Sharing and Team-Member Exchange

Given that work teams have been widely used in a variety of organizations to complete critical tasks and that the use of social media in work teams has been growing, investigating whether and how team social media usage (TSMU) affects team creativity is imperative. However, little research has empirically explored how TSMU affects team creativity. This study divides TSMU into two categories, namely, work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU. Basing on communication visibility theory and social exchange theory, this study constructs a moderating mediation model to understand how TSMU affects team creativity. In this model, team knowledge sharing is used as mediating role and team-member exchange (TMX) is used as moderating role. Two-wave research data collected from 641 employees in 102 work teams in Chinese organizations are used for regression analysis. Results show that (1) Work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU are positively affect team creativity. (2) Team knowledge sharing plays a partly mediating effect on the relationship between work-related TSMU and team creativity and that between relationship-related TSMU and team creativity. (3) TMX not only positively moderates the indirect effect of work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU on team creativity through team knowledge sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Leveraging enterprise social network technology: understanding the roles of compatibility and intrinsic motivation

Purpose

This study explores the factors influencing the value of enterprise social media (ESM) from the perspective of compatibility. Establishing a theoretical model based on compatibility theory, the authors examine the effects of two dimensions of compatibility and the mediating effects of employees' intrinsic motivations. ESM is an important tool that helps companies to enhance knowledge sharing and cross-department collaboration. Thus, it is important to understand factors that can facilitate the role of ESM in improving enterprise operating performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a survey among 353 users of a leading ESM platform and empirically investigated how compatibility influences ESM value through employees' intrinsic motivations. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to study the relationship among compatibility, employees' intrinsic motivations and ESM value.

Findings

The empirical research results indicate that compatibility of self-interest with group interest influences the value of ESM, and intrinsic motivations toward collaboration and toward knowledge management partially mediate the effects of the two dimensions of compatibility on ESM value.

Research limitations/implications

First, the empirical analysis relies on data from surveying employees of Chinese companies. Therefore, one direction for future research is to reexamine the model using data from other countries. Second, the effects of compatibility identified in the study may vary among different ESM platforms. In addition, the findings may change for organizations having different sizes.

Practical implications

This finding suggests that managers should pay close attention to potential conflicts of interest when implementing ESM to enhance group communication and collaboration. This study also highlights the importance of compatibility of new working processes with experience in practice. In addition, intrinsic motivations towards both cooperation and knowledge management in ESM are important factors influencing the value creation of ESM. Therefore, to cultivate employees' intrinsic motivation, managers and organizations need to facilitate the formation of a collaborative atmosphere and habits of cooperative adoption.

Originality/value

Although previous studies show that compatibility is a strong belief salient to technology acceptance and continuance usage behavior, the operational definition of compatibility developed by prior studies has generally been limited to the technology perspective and the individual level. However, the primary benefit of ESM is enabling online team collaboration and knowledge sharing across various departments. Thus, the level of compatibility between employees' self-interests and group interests may influence their intrinsic motivations toward ESM usage. From this perspective of individual–group interest conflicts, the authors propose a conceptual research model based on the theory of compatibility in innovation diffusion.

Instrumental ties or expressive ties? Impact mechanism of supervisor–subordinate ties based on enterprise social media on employee performance

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to answer whether and how supervisor–subordinate instrumental or expressive ties based on enterprise social media (ESM) might enhance employee performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study developed a theoretical model to explore the influencing mechanism of different supervisor–subordinate ties based on ESM on employee job performance. The model was empirically tested through 219 ESM users.

Findings

The results revealed that supervisor–subordinate instrumental ties based on ESM play a positive role in employee job performance, while supervisor–subordinate expressive ties based on ESM are not significantly related to employee job performance. Supervisor–subordinate instrumental ties and expressive ties based on ESM can positively influence employee job performance through the mediating effect of organizational trust. Besides, perceived performance climate can weaken the relation of organizational trust to job performance, and then weaken the indirect relations via the mediating of organizational trust.

Originality/value

Our findings advance the understanding of ESM use through various underlying mechanisms and have the potential of guiding organizations to fine-tune their social media usage strategies.

Interplay of enterprise social media and learning at work: a qualitative investigation

Purpose

The study aims to understand enterprise social media usage at work and explore its impact on employee outcomes, particularly learning behaviors. The scope of the paper is limited to organizationally facilitated enterprise social media (ESM) used internally for workplace communication and draws upon ESM affordances highlighted by the theory of communication visibility.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a qualitative research design based on Miles and Huberman framework (1994) as the research question was exploratory in nature. Thematic analysis was conducted using QSR-NVivo to arrive at the dominant themes and to understand their relationship between enterprise social media use at work. Each emergent theme was generated from the behavioral indicators labelled as nodes. Drawing on qualitative data, the study explored the lived-in experiences of employees using enterprise social media for workplace interactions.

Findings

The thematic analysis using QSR-NVivo provided qualitative evidence for the phenomenon of enterprise social media use in the form of four emergent themes: patterns of enterprise social media usage by employees, employees' informal learning behaviors, employee social capital and organizational learning capability.

Research limitations/implications

The study provides theoretical insights into the lived-in experiences of employees using ESM at work and unravel thematic behavioral impact on their learning, social capital and organizational learning capability. The findings of this study support recent research work on impact of ESM on knowledge sharing behaviors (see Sun et al., 2019) and other significant work on co-creation of knowledge (see Wagner et al., 2014). Thus, adding to the body of knowledge management literature.

Practical implications

This study provides evidence for the role of enterprise social media in developing organizational learning capability by offering support and platform for employees' informal learning and building their social capital. Thus, organizations should leverage enterprise social media not only a social networking tool but more as a strategic learning resource. Hence, organizational leaders must encourage employees to be involved on such platforms in order to promote their informal learning. Also, this study captures the role of employee social capital in explaining the enterprise social media, informal learning and organizational learning capability relationship. This shows that enterprise social media can help employees to learn informally when they have good relationships. Hence, this study provides implications for both HR and IT managers and consultants who plan to implement technology for collaborative purposes, should not undermine the importance of building employee social capital. Only then can they utilize the potential of ESM as a learning tool. Last, this research may also influence the general attitude towards social media use at work and further impact the design and implementation of organizational social media policies.

Originality/value

The paper is novel as the qualitative investigation offers deeper insights into the impact of ESM usage on employee and organizational learning behaviors. The paper draws on theoretical underpinnings to present useful linkages between emergent concepts and makes valuable contribution to the literature on enterprise social media use and learning at work.

WeChat relationships maintenance behavior and social entrepreneurial intention under conditions of dual narcissism: the mediating role of social capital

Purpose

As social networking sites (SNSs) gain popularity, they are being widely used by entrepreneurs to obtain social capital to carry out business ventures. However not all SNS usage behaviors promote entrepreneurship. Only when individuals actively participate in SNSs relationship maintenance behaviors they can obtain resources that are conducive to promoting social entrepreneurship. The aim of this study is to explore the role of WeChat relationship maintenance behavior (WRMB) on social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) with dual narcissism as an essential antecedent that affects SNS use.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on dual narcissism theory and the theoretical framework that networking is a critical skill and activity for the success of social entrepreneurship, this study proposes a serial mediation model that explores the formation of SEI. This study collected data from a sample of 275 MBA students in China and applied multiple regression and confirmatory factor analysis techniques to test the research model.

Findings

The results reveal narcissistic admiration (NA) is positively associated with WRMB, while narcissistic rivalry (NR) is negatively associated with such behavior. And the positive impact of NA on SEI can be explained by WRMB and social capital paths, while the negative impact of NR cannot.

Originality/value

This research is the first application of dual narcissism in the field of SEI, which provides a new way to explain the antecedents of SEI under the social network. The findings provide an effective reference path for social entrepreneurship education in universities and educational institutions and enlighten the correct distinction between dual narcissism in entrepreneurial psychological consultation.

Enterprise social media usage and knowledge hiding: a motivation theory perspective

Purpose

Reducing employees’ knowledge hiding is vital for enterprise managers. The development of enterprise social media brings opportunities for them to manage employees’ knowledge-hiding behaviors. However, whether the use of enterprise social media inhibits or promotes knowledge hiding is still unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore how enterprise social media usage affect employees' knowledge hiding.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation model, this paper proposes a research model to investigate the relationship between enterprise social media usage and knowledge hiding, using a structural equation modeling analysis of 288 employees’ data.

Findings

The results show that work-related public social media usage has an inhibiting effect on employees’ knowledge hiding, whereas the effect of work-related private social media usage on employees’ knowledge hiding is not significant; socially related public social media and private social media usage has a promoting effect on employees’ knowledge hiding; and job engagement acts in a positive moderating role between socially related private and public social media usage and evasive hiding.

Originality/value

First, this paper contributes to knowledge-hiding literature by revealing the relationship between enterprise social media usage and knowledge hiding. Second, this study contributes to motivation theory by clarifying how the use of enterprise social media with different motivations affects knowledge hiding. Third, this paper also contributes to knowledge-hiding literature by revealing a boundary condition, namely, job engagement.

How to improve employee satisfaction and efficiency through different enterprise social media use

Purpose

While prior research provides interesting insights into the effect of social media use in enterprises, there is limited research on how use of different social media platforms affects employee job satisfaction and work efficiency. This study developed a research model to investigate how public and private social media platforms used for different motivations affect employee job satisfaction and work efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

Online surveys were conducted in China, generating 453 valid responses for analysis. Structural equation modeling is performed to test the research model and hypotheses.

Findings

The results suggest that (1) public social media used for both work- and social-related motivations positively affects employee job satisfaction, while private social media only used for social-related motivations can contribute to employee job satisfaction. (2) Public and private social media used for work-related motivations can contribute to employee work efficiency, while social-related motivations for use of public and private social media and employee work efficiency are not significant. (3) In the process of social media usage influencing employee job satisfaction and work efficiency, employees of different genders show significant differences.

Originality/value

First, this paper contributes to information systems social media research by examining the joint effects of different motivations for public and private social media usage on employee job satisfaction and work efficiency in organizations. Second, it contributes to uses and gratification theory by clarifying the relationship between different motivations for enterprise social media use and its needs.

Help Comes from Understanding: The Positive Effect of Communication Visibility on Employee Helping Behavior

Extant research focuses on the antecedents of employee helping behavior, but the role of social technologies in enhancing employee helping behavior remains understudied. The purpose of our research is to investigate the relationship between communication visibility and employee helping behavior. Drawing on both communication visibility theory and social cognitive theory, we propose that the association between communication visibility and helping behavior is mediated by employee psychological state assessed by a cognitive state variable: trust in coworkers. Further, we also propose that proactive personality moderates the positive effect of trust in coworkers on employee helping behavior. We examined our hypothesized relationships using 149 employees collected in a field experiment in China. As hypothesized, we find that trust in coworkers mediates the relationship between communication visibility and helping behavior. Moreover, proactive personality strengthens the effectiveness of communication visibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice.

Utilising Enterprise Social Media for Product Innovation: The Role of Market Orientation

The literature on the role of enterprise social media (ESM) utilisation in driving the innovation profiles of organisations has not provided an understanding of the mechanisms of this positive relationship. By conceptualising ESM as including internal and external social media use, this study examined the mediating role of market orientation strategies in the link between ESM use and product innovation. The results of structural equation modeling, among a sample of organisations based in South Africa, show that ESM use positively affects the market orientation strategies of companies and these have a positive effect on product innovation. While inter-functional coordination does not mediate the external social media–product innovation link, it does so in the internal social media–product innovation link. These results imply that organisations that wish to pursue product innovation (and perhaps strategies of differentiation) should use ESM, leveraging their value in knowledge generation and assimilation.

Interaction between task characteristics and technology affordances

Purpose

Enterprise social media (ESM) usage has gained considerable momentum within organizations. The purpose of this paper is to seek a better understanding of ESM usage based on the task environments and the technology affordances of ESM.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on a survey consisting of 556 usable responses. Regression methods are applied to analyze the data.

Findings

This study finds strong support for the positive impact of task-technology fit on ESM usage. Considering separately, task equivocality had no impact; task interdependence had a negative effect on ESM usage; bridging social capital had a positive effect; and bonding social capital had a marginal impact on ESM usage.

Research limitations/implications

This research incorporated social capital into discussions of task-technology fit. A 2×2 matrix based on task equivocality and task interdependence was developed, which may be extended to other contexts or technologies.

Practical implications

ESM implementation should account for both task environments and the appropriate technology affordances. Individuals access bridging social capital to a greater extent than bonding social capital using ESM, and they do not use ESM when the task environments alone are considered.

Originality/value

This is an original study that considers task environments and technology affordances in the context of ESM usage. The findings offer valuable and timely contributions to both scholars and practitioners.

How Newcomers’ Work-Related Use of Enterprise Social Media Affects Their Thriving at Work—The Swift Guanxi Perspective

This study aims to explore the relationship between newcomers’ use of enterprise social media (ESM) and their thriving at work. Adopting the conception of swift guanxi, we propose a model to examine how newcomers’ work-related use of ESM influences their thriving at work through promoting swift guanxi (i.e., mutual understanding, reciprocal favors, and relationship harmony) between newcomers and veterans. A valid sample consisted of 77 new employee-veteran dyads in a large telecom company was used in Smart-PLS to test our research model. The results show that newcomers’ work-related use of ESM positively affects mutual understanding, reciprocal favor, and relationship harmony. Reciprocal favor and relationship harmony exert positive effects on learning and vitality. However, mutual understanding only has a positive effect on learning. Furthermore, swift guanxi mediates the relationships between newcomers’ work-related ESM usage and the two dimensions of thriving. The findings provide new insights for organizations to better manage the use of ESM to improve newcomers’ thriving at work.