Corporate Adoption of Social Computing: A Process-Based Analysis

Abstract

Digital natives – the generation for whom the Internet has always existed – have embraced the medium as one of choice. They use social computing applications as a medium for many activities, including receiving and giving product advice (ratings, comments), meeting with and talking to friends (social networking, chat), organizing events (social networking), learning (Wikipedia, weblogs), and communication with the general public (Youtube, weblogs). Facebook, a social networking service, has reached an audience of approximately 800 million users; young Iranians organize protests against their government via social networks, while amateur journalists and artists are viewed by millions on Youtube and weblogs. Inspired by these developments, corporations now seek to adopt social computing applications and derive similar benefits for their organizations. However, despite their growing interest, many firms report significant problems with the implementation and acceptance of social computing applications. We describe how three companies solved significant communication and collaboration issues by incorporating social computing applications into their intranets. Particular attention is paid to the deployment and adoption processes.

Keywords: Social computing applications, social software, corporate adoption, business value of IT, process theory, IS adoption, Wiki, weblog