2 Research method and application
2.3 Research method
ToaddressthethreeresearchquestionsdescribedinSection 1, weconductedasystematicliteraturereview.Assuch,ourresearch isstructuredin accordancetoBandaraetal.[38] andfollowsthe proposed procedure ofWebster and Watson[12]. Toprovide full transparencyofourresearchandtomakeourliteraturereview re-producible,allrelevantsteps(seeFig.2)areexplainedindetailin thefollowing.
First, the review scope is defined in accordance with the re-search questions (cf. [39], see Section 1). Afterwards, seminal works that deal with ESNs (e.g. [15–17]) were drawn on to de-finekeytermsandtoextractkeyconceptsthatwerelateronused todefine the search termsandthe time periodfor theliterature search.Basedontheseresultsandtheknowledgeaboutthevariety ofdifferenttermsused todescribethephenomenon ofESNs(see Section 2.1), we identified the most promising search terms for ourliterature review aspresented inTable 1,e.g.,‘Enterprise So-cialNetworking’.Areasonabletimeperiodforourliteraturesearch seemedtobetheadventofthefirstESNrelatedliteraturein2004, whichalsomarkedthepointintimewherethefirst‘mainstream’
B. Wehner et al. / Computer Networks 114 (2017) 125–142
Fig. 2. Research method.
Table 1
Overview of search parameters.
Search Terms (all combinations) Enterprise AND Social AND Network(s/ing)
Corporate Software media
Social intranet
Time period 2004 - 2015
Search fields Title, Abstract, Keywords (where possible)
Social Networks started toemerge (cf. [40]). Table 1 provides an overviewofthesearchparametersofourliteraturereview.
The literaturesearchwas conductedintwosequentialsteps.In the firststep,wesearchedforrelevantpublicationsusingthe de-fined search termsandfilteredthe resultsfortherelevant litera-ture. Afterwards, we performeda backward (screening the refer-encesusedinthesepapers) andforwardsearch(publicationsthat havecitedthesepapers;cf.[41]).
To conduct a successful literature search, appropriate journals andconferenceswhichprovidehighqualityarticlesandmajor con-tributions inISresearchhavetobechosen [12].Toselectthe rel-evant ones, a well-known approach is referring to rankings [42]. Widely acceptedrankingsfortheIScommunityaretheMIS jour-nal ranking1 andthe VHB-Jourqual3 ranking.2 Forourselection process,we pickedthe30top journalsoftheMISjournalranking andenriched thislistwithjournalsthat focusonsimilaror adja-centtopicsasourresearchfromtheVHB-Jourqual3ranking,e.g., JournalofComputer-MediatedCommunication,AISTransactionson Human-ComputerInteraction.
Further, conference proceedings are a valuable means to ex-changenewideasespeciallyinayoungfield(cf.[42]),whichESN indeed is. To select appropriate conferences, we referred to the VHB-Jourqual3rankingthatliststheproceedingsofthemost rel-evant conferencesinISresearch. Inadditiontotheseranked con-ferences, we extended our search to specialized conferencesthat are explicitlycoveringourresearchtopic, assuggestedbyKochet al.[9].We thereforeaddedEuropean ConferenceonSocial Media (ECSM) to our list, as ESN is mentioned as one of the main re-search topicsofthisconference.The completelistoftheselected journals andconferencesforour literaturereview ispresentedin Appendix1.
Afterdefiningthesearchparameters(seeTable1),theliterature search wasconductedandresultedina totalof3825publications initially.Then,wecheckedthemfortheirrelevancetoourresearch questions(cf.[38])basedontheirtitle,theprovidedkeywordsand their abstract. Toreduce thesubjectivity oftheselection process, tworesearchersevaluatedtherelevanceofeachpaperindividually.
The main reasons for discarding articles for the upcoming
clas-1http://aisnet.org/general/custom.asp?page=journalRankings
2http://vhbonline.org/service/jourqual/vhb-jourqual-3/teilrating-wi/
sification and topic analysiswere a different focus of the article (e.g.,OnlineSocial Networks (cf. [2]), inter-firm network analysis (cf. [43])) or the application of general social media concepts in entrepreneurialsettings(e.g.,publicmicrobloggingusedbya com-pany(cf.[38]), analyzingvideosharing platformsusedby a com-pany (cf.[44])). Afterwards, the resultsof both researchers were compared by calculating Krippendorff’s alpha, which is a well-knownmeasuretoverifythereliabilityofagreement[45].Thetwo researchers disagreed ona total of 60 publications,which led to
α=(2∗(23825∗3825−60))= 0.984.Thisvalueshowsahighagreement be-tweenthetworesearchers,associalscientistsconsiderα>0.8as beingahighvalue[45].Theremaining60disagreementswere dis-cussedwitha third researcherand,in all cases,aconsensus was foundeventually,e.g.,weeventuallydiscardedapaperinwhichIT, andnotanESNasdefinedinSection2.1,was usedasadriverfor buildingsocialcapitalinsupplychains(cf.[46]).
Afterevaluatingallpublications,weidentified99articlesas be-ingrelevanttoourresearchquestions.Weextendedourliterature search by analyzingthese99publications inregardsto their ref-erences(backwardsearch)andinwhichoutletstheywerecitedin (forward search; cf.[41]). Hereby,we identified seven additional articlesthathadnotbeenincludedinourcollectionastheywere notpublishedinthetoprankedISjournalsandconferences. How-ever, all of them were either published in other peer-reviewed journals(e.g.,JournalofDatabaseManagement)orconference pro-ceedings(e.g.,MediterraneanConferenceonInformationSystems) and containedpromising content for our research questions. For thisreason,wedecidedtoaddthemtoourliteraturereview,which ultimatelyled toafinalnumberof106relevantarticlesfora fur-therin-depthtopicanalysis.
Beforewe could startwiththisanalysis, we hadtospecifyits topics.ItisimportanttonotethattopicsincludesubjectsofanESN (e.g.,networkstructure,technologies)and/orthedifferent perspec-tivesofanESN(e.g.,benefits,successfactors,impact),buttheydo notincluderesearchmethods.Thesubsequenttopicanalysisinthis paperisbasedontheconcept-centricapproachpresentedby Web-sterandWatson[12]andthequalitativecontentanalysisaccording to Mayring [13],entailing deductive category applicationand in-ductivecategorydevelopment.Asastartingpointfortheanalysis, wesearched throughexistingliterature toidentifypotential cate-gories. This search entailed,for example, literature on Enterprise
39
B. Wehner et al. / Computer Networks 114 (2017) 125–142 2.0meta-topics[31],oncategoriesofESNapplications[17],on
ad-vantagesanddisadvantagesofESNapplication[16],onchallenges andopportunities[47],oronESNuseincompanies[48].Basedon thesefindings,wedeductedgeneralizedcategoriesforthe qualita-tive analysisofourliterature review,e.g., knowledgemanagement, collaboration,andcommunication[17].Weusedthesecategoriesto classifythe106articles(deductivecategoryapplication).However, not all categories addressedby the 106 publications fit into one oftheseinitialcategoriesasitturnedoutinsomecasesthatthey weretoobroadtocomplywithourapproach.Therefore,wefurther divided themintomorespecializedcategories(inductivecategory development)towhichtheidentified topicswereallocated.Then, we alignedthecategoriesto theESNcontext toclearly show the particular connection toESNs, which ultimatelyled tothe topics tobeusedforthein-depthanalysis(e.g.,ESNimpactonknowledge management). We classifiedthe identified literature andanalyzed the topics addressed in these publications using the framework proposed inthenext section.Thisclassificationinthe framework helpstobetterstructureandreviewthearticlesfound.
2.4. Frameworkforclassification
Tostructurecurrentandfutureresearchtopicsderivedfromthe 106identifiedarticles,wedevelopedaframeworktoinitially clas-sify the articles. As a starting point for our framework, we first analyzed existing frameworks in a similar context to determine theirapplicabilitytoourresearchquestion(see2.2).Wethenbuilt ourframeworkadoptingthebestfittingdimensionsandideasfrom theseframeworkstocreateonethatsupportedourgoals.
The firstdimension, focusofinvestigation, isrootedfrom var-ious frameworks we analyzed. For example,van Osch and Cour-saris [35] usemanagement,employees,andexternal stakeholders andthree dimensionsof their framework torepresentthe differ-entfocusviewsonorganizationalSocialmediaresearch.Asimilar approach can be identified in the framework published by Kane etal. [36] asthey differentiate betweenexplanatorymechanisms andgoals.Araletal.[37]usethedimension“LevelofAnalysis” to distinguishgenerallayersthatareimportantovertimeanddonot focusonparticulartechnologiesorconcepts intherapidly chang-ing field of SocialMedia. As we wanted to classify andstructure theliteraturebythemainperspectiveofinvestigation,we particu-larly chosetheirdimension,enricheditwithideasfromtheother frameworks and adapted it to the specific field of ESN research.
Asaresult,ourdimensionconsistsofthreedistinct,but synthesiz-inglayers,rangingfromanindividualuser’sperspectivethrougha platformperspectivetoahigher-levelcompany’sperspective.
• Individualfocus:Researchfocusingonemployeesandtheir di-rectenvironment.Exemplaryquestionsare:Whatarethe bene-fitsofESNsforemployees?Howcanwemeasureemployeesurplus generatedbyESNs?HowdoESNsaffectuserbehavior?What mo-tivatesanemployeetouseanESN?
• Technical focus: Research focusing on software, technical as-pectsandfunctionalities.Exemplaryquestionsare:Howshould an ESN be designed to ideally meet user expectations and demands? Which functionalities increase employee acceptance?
WhatshouldtheintroductionprocessofanESNlooklike?
• Organizationalfocus:Researchfocusingonthecompanylevel (networkandeffects).Exemplaryquestionsare:Howcan short-andlong-termeffectsofESNsonanenterpriselevelbemeasured?
HowistheorganizationalcultureaffectedbyanESN?Howshould anESNbegoverned?
The second dimension of our framework, ESN implementation status,isadaptedfromthedimension“time” aspresentedby Her-zogetal.[19].Whileotherexistingframeworksuseactivities(e.g., Aral etal.[37],vanOschandCoursaris [35]) orcontent/structure
(e.g.,Kaneetal.[36])toclassifyresearch,weidentifiedthe imple-mentationstatusoftheESNatthetimeoftheresearchaddressing itasthemajordiscriminantforclassifyingpapers,especiallywhen tryingto provideguidanceto practitioners.Additionally, topics of theresearchwillstronglybeinfluencedbythestateof implemen-tationandwillthereforeallowustodistinctlyclassifythearticles.
ResearchwilleithercoverspecificESNtopicsbefore(ex-ante), dur-ing(ongoing),orafterimplementation(ex-post).Whiletheex-ante perspectivefocusesonexpectationsofallESNstakeholders,the ex-postperspectiveprovidesexperiencesandbestpractices.
• Ex-ante: All topics before the implementation of ESNs. For example: Platform design, assessment of user requirements, and alignmentofbusinessstrategy.
• Ongoing:Alltopicsduringorrightaftertheimplementationof ESNs(short-termperspective).Forexample:Barriersduringthe implementation,earlyadoptersandtheirinfluenceonpropagation inthecompany,descriptionofimplementationphases.
• Ex-post:AlltopicsaftertheimplementationofESNs(long-term perspective). Forexample:Effectsonthenetworkstructure, suc-cessmeasurement,organizationalchange.
We combinedthe two presented dimensionsfocus of investi-gationandESNimplementationstatusintoa3×3framework(see Tables 2and 3) to provide uswitha structured overviewof the generalresearchfocusoftheextractedliterature.Usingthe frame-work,we were able toclassify all ofthe 106 publicationswithin thetwo dimensions. Thisclassification supports both researchers andpractitioners. Researchers can identify existing literature fit-tingtheirspecificresearch,e.g.,aresearcherwhostudiesthe gen-eraleffects ofESNs onemployeeswillusetheframework dimen-sionfocusofinvestigation andselectliteraturefromthethree ar-easdealing with userfocus asa startingpoint. Forpractitioners, ourframework offers a substantial collectionof topics relatedto theintroduction,execution, andeffectsof ESNs.Thus, the frame-workprovidesacompany witharticlesfittingthecompany’s spe-cificsituation,e.g.,acompany thatintendstonewly introducean ESNwillforemostsearchforarticlesintheex-antecategoryofthe dimensionESNimplementationstatus.
3. Results
3.1.Quantitativeresults
To address RQ1, we needed to analyze terms and definitions usedby theIScommunityintheESNcontext.Thus,wefirst ana-lyzedthenumberofarticlesregardingtheyearofpublication,the publicationoutlet,andthepublicationtypetogainastatusquo in-sightintheimportanceofESNresearchintheIScommunity.Next, weanalyzedthetermsusedtodescribethephenomenon ofESNs intotalandovertimeto analyzethecurrentterminologyusedin theIScommunityandto describe recentdevelopmentsin termi-nologyovertime.
Looking attheyearof publication(see Fig.3),ESNs can gener-allybe classifiedasayoungresearch field.Withatotalofonly 9 publicationsin theyears 2004 to 2009, thepublication ratewas expectedlyratherlow atthetime ofthe firstemergence ofearly ESNapplications.From2010 on,ISresearch leanedmoretowards ESNs as companies became more aware of ESNs and first larger scale implementations were put in place. Afterwards, the publi-cationrate increasedsteadily until 2015, withone slight dent in 2013.The highest numberofpublications sofar was achieved in 2015 with24articles, confirmingthecontinuously rising interest ofISresearchinESNs.
As istobe expectedinayoungresearch fieldlikeESNs, more articles were published in conference proceedings (75%) than in
B. Wehner et al. / Computer Networks 114 (2017) 125–142
Table 2
Classification of articles found.
ESN implementation status
Ex-ante Ongoing Ex-post
Focus of investigation Individual focus 12 articles 11 .3% 3 articles 2 .8% 15 articles 14 .2% 30 articles 28 .3%
Technical focus 17 articles 16 .0% 10 articles 9 .4% 7 articles 6 .6% 34 articles 32 .1%
Organizational focus 15 articles 14 .2% 6 articles 5 .7% 21 articles 19 .8% 42 articles 39 .6%
44 articles 41 .5% 19 articles 17 .9% 43 articles 40 .6% N = 106
focus • (Intended) ESN usage (4x) [21,54,55,60]
• Influencing factors of ESN usage (4x) [59,61,67,68]
• Motivation factors of ESN usage (2x) [60,69]
• User requirements regarding ESNs (2x) [68,70]
• (Intended) benefits of ESN usage (1x) [54]
• (Intended) ESN impact on collaboration (1x) [71]
• ESN user acceptance (1x) [23]
• User behavior in ESNs (2x) [62,63]
• ESN impact on knowledge management (1x) [57]
• ESN user perceptions (1x) [57]
• User behavior in ESNs (8x) [27,53,64,65, 72–75]
• ESN impact on communication (4x) [52,74,76,77]
• ESN usage (2x) [78,79]
• ESN impact on knowledge management (2x) [52,77]
• ESN user acceptance (2x) [66,80]
• Network structures in ESNs (2x) [75,79]
• ESN impact on collaboration (1x) [53]
• Content shared in ESNs (1x) [73]
• Lurking (1x) [65]
• Privacy issues of ESNs (1x) [66]
Technical focus • Design of ESN systems (7x) [15,81–86]
• (Intended) ESN impact on knowledge management (6x) [25,83,84,87–89]
• (Intended) ESN usage (2x) [56,90]
• (Intended) User behavior in ESN (2x) [15,48]
• (Intended) ESN impact on collaboration (1x) [86]
• Cultivation of ESNs (1x) [56]
• ESN evaluation framework (1x) [19]
• Innovation created in ESNs (1x) [24]
• Success measurement of ESNs (1x) [48]
• (Intended) ESN impact on team performance (1x) [91]
• Implementation of ESNs (3x) [17,92,93]
• Social search using ESNs (2x) [94,95]
• Benefits of ESN usage (1x) [96]
• ESN impact on collaboration (1x) [96]
• Content shared in ESNs (1x) [93]
• ESN impact on knowledge management (1x) [40]
• Project management in ESNs (1x) [97]
• ESN in SME (1x) [97]
• Best practices of ESN deployment (1x) [98]
• Visualization of ESN structures (1x) [99]
• Network structures in ESNs (3x) [100–102]
• Success measurement of ESNs (2x) [102,103]
• ESN usage (1x) [104]
• Gamification in ESNs (1x) [105]
• User behavior in ESNs (1x) [105]
• Visualization of ESN structures (1x) [106]
Organizational
focus • (Intended) ESN impact on knowledge management (5x)
• Influencing factors of ESN usage (2x) [117,118]
• Organizational change induced by ESNs (2x) [47,109]
• User behavior in ESNs (2x) [113,114]
• ESN usage (1x) [119]
• Success measurement of ESNs (1x) [120]
• ESN user acceptance (1x) [117]
• Implementation of ESNs (2x) [121,122]
• Benefits of ESN usage (1x) [123]
• Governance of ESNs (2x) [123,124]
• Network structures in ESNs (1x) [122]
• ESN impact on organizational culture (1x) [125]
• Organizational change induced by ESNs (1x) [126]
• Content shared in ESNs (7x) [127–133]
• Network structures in ESNs (7x) [134–140]
• ESN usage (4x) [128,129,131,141]
• Organizational change induced by ESNs (3x) [130,133,142]
• User behavior in ESNs (3x) [143–145]
• ESN impact on knowledge management (2x) [132,134]
• Benefits of ESN usage (1x) [146]
• Cultivation of ESNs (1x) [128]
• Governance of ESNs (1x) [145]
• Organizational charts deducted from ESN (1x) [140]
• Success measurement of ESNs (1x) [127]
• ESN tool evaluation (1x) [141]
• Visualization of ESN structures (1x) [147]
41
B. Wehner et al. / Computer Networks 114 (2017) 125–142
Fig. 3. Year of publication.
Fig. 4. Publication outlets.
academicjournals(25%)intotal.Inthisregard,lookingatthe pub-licationoutletindetail,weseethatthetopfivepublicationoutlets are solely conference proceedings (see Fig. 4). However, with re-search advancing,theproportionofjournalpublicationshasbeen steadilyincreasing,reaching34% in2014 and29%in2015 respec-tively(seeFig.3).Thejournalwiththemostpublicationsrelevant toESNs sofarisBISE(4articles), followedbyI&MandISR(3 ar-ticleseach).BISEisthejournalwithmostarticlesduetothe pub-lication of a special issue withESNs as one of the main topics.
ThefactthataspecialissueregardingESNshasalreadybeen pub-lishedshowstheparticularandtrendinginterestonthetopicESN in the IS community. Giventhe growing publication ratesin the well-established journals andconferencesanalyzed, we can state thatthetopicESNhasbeenestablishedintheIScommunityandis consideredtobeaninterestingandinnovativeresearcharea. How-ever, theshare ofESN articlesin relationto all publications ofa conference or a journal is still low. This becomes obvious when lookingatthepastfiveyearsasonlyabout0.5%ofthearticlesat HICSS, 1.1% at ECIS, and 0.8% at AMCIS deal with ESNs. Further, therearemanyjournalsandconferenceswithlessthanthree pub-lications only(see Fig.4). TheseincludetheInternational Confer-enceon Complex, IntelligentandSoftware IntensiveSystems (CI-SIS), theInternationalConferenceonE-Commerce(ICEC), andthe ComputerNetworks Journal. Thisshowsthat thetopicof ESNsis not onlyaddressedby ISresearch, butalsoby manyadjacent re-search disciplinesduetoits manifold nature,e.g., inthefieldsof knowledgemanagement,collaboration,andcommunication[17].
Looking at Fig. 5,we allocatedeach articleto one of the fol-lowingtypes:casestudy,survey,experiment,literaturereview(cf.
[49]),grounded theory(cf.[50]),prototypinginformationsystems (short.prototyping) (cf.[51]),andresearchinprogress.Byfarthe biggest share of articles inour analysis are casestudies (68, see Fig.5). Thesecasestudies describehowESNs areobservedin ac-tual corporate implementations in regard to specific topics, e.g.,
Fig. 5. Type of articles.
howorganizationalknowledgeissharedusinganESN[52]orhow taskperformance isaffected by using an ESN [53]. The category ofgrounded theorycomprises19articles andanalyzesESNs from both a theoretical and practical perspective, e.g., by describing a model to assess the individual benefits of ESNs for employees [54]orbydevelopingameasurementinstrumenttoempirically as-sessinfluencingfactorsofESNusage[55].Mostarticlesfoundare practice-drivenresearchpublications.Consequently,weonlyfound asmallnumberoftheoretical works.According tothesefindings, we see a large share of articles based on single cases only that thereforelackingeneralizabilityintheirspecifictopics.Tosumit up,we candefine ESNasaresearch field that haslargepractical influenceonresearchwithasmallershareofthetheoretical foun-dation.
InregardtotheauthorsofESNpublications,wesummarizedthe number of articles of each author and analyzed co-authorships.
The 106 articles were published by 223 different authors,which amountstoan averageof2.1authorsperarticle.Interestingly,the seven mostpublishing authorsaccount for 31of the106 articles (29.2%).Oneexplanationis ahighnumberofco-authorshipsthat alsoshowsthatthereareseveraldistinctresearchgroupsinregard toESNs.However,theresearchgroupscurrentlystarttocollaborate andco-publish.
Inouranalysis,wediscoveredthatalotofdifferentexpressions forthephenomenonofESNsareused.Weseethelargenumberof differentauthors (223), the already mentioned different research groupsand the adjacency of ESNs to other research areas as an
Inouranalysis,wediscoveredthatalotofdifferentexpressions forthephenomenonofESNsareused.Weseethelargenumberof differentauthors (223), the already mentioned different research groupsand the adjacency of ESNs to other research areas as an