Various social media applications

Organisations in virtually every industry are investing heavily in various social media applications
such as blogs, wikis, and public and enterprise social networking sites (Kaplan &
Haenlein, 2010; Levy, 2009; Panahi, Watson & Partridge, 2013; Shen, Cheung & Lee, 2013;
Sultan, 2013). The pervasiveness of social media and relevance of user-generated content
means that their influence on organisations is increasing (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Mihalič,
Praničević & Arnerić, 2015; Shen et al., 2013; Sipior, Ward & Volonino, 2014) and much is
known about the use of social media in marketing (Biloš & Kelić, 2012). However, studies
related to the use of social media in the workplace are still scarce (Charoensukmongkol,
2014).
A number of companies have succeeded in using social media internally to reduce costs,
increase revenues and achieve competitive advantage (Huy & Shipilov, 2012). However,
many have also failed to obtain benefits, and the risks of implementing social media are
particularly high. There seems to be very limited understanding of its use for work purposes
(Huy & Shipilov, 2012; Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014; Roberts & Piller, 2016; Sipior
et al., 2014). Many executives thus eschew or ignore this form of media because they do
KEYWORDS
Social media; web 2.0;
business value; purpose;
technological capabilities;
user involvement; case study
JEL CLASSIFICATIONS
M15; O32; O35
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 8 October 2015
Accepted 1 May 2017
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
CONTACT Peter Trkman peter.trkman@ef.uni-lj.si
OPEN ACCESS
1092 M. TRKMAN AND P. TRKMAN
not understand what it is, the various forms it can take, how to engage with it, or how to
generate business value (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy & Silvestre, 2011). The definition
of the business value of information systems is still ambiguous (Lee, DeLone, Tan &
Corrales, 2014). In general, its dimensions depend on a variety of factors, including the
type of a system, management practices, organisational structure and the environment
(Melville, Kraemer & Gurbaxani, 2004). For the purpose of this paper the business value can
be defined as the impact of investments in social media on the performance and capabilities
of economic entities (adapted from (Schryen, 2013)).
Appropriate use of social media tops the agenda of many organisations (Chua & Banerjee,
2013). Previous research has contributed to the understanding of what drives people to mass
collaboration, such as open-source software development or Wikipedia (Arazy, Gellatly,
Soobaek & Patterson, 2009; Trkman & Trkman, 2009). Still, many questions need to be
explored across different social media applications (Panahi et al., 2013). Too little is known
about their success and failure factors (Ardichvili, Page & Wentling, 2003), and the extent to
which firms are able to derive business value has not been systematically examined (Dong
& Wu, 2015). How organisations determine when and how to use social media is one of
the main questions awaiting further research (Ford & Mason, 2013). Even more important
is what determines whether an internal social media initiative will lead to business value
(Huy & Shipilov, 2012). Therefore, the main research question in this paper is to determine
which factors influence the success of social media application implementation and should
thus be considered in either planning or evaluation. To answer this question, a framework
is proposed with carefully defined components that quantify the business value of a social
media activity. The framework’s evaluation of the business value is based on the following
main components: purpose, technological solution, and user involvement.
An extensive literature review is used to develop a framework that attempts a holistic
overview and categorisation of issues that need to be considered either before implementation
of a social media application or in the analysis of its success. The use of the framework
is demonstrated on a case study where the business value from a wiki is analysed at two
different time points.
The structure of the paper is as follows: First, it highlights the need to further study the
impact of social media. Then an extensive literature review is used to develop the proposed
framework. The use of the framework is demonstrated on one longitudinal case study of a
wiki as a knowledge management tool in a software development company. In the conclusion,
the limitations of the study and future research ideas are outlined.

2. Background
   Before analysing the use of social media within organisations in detail, the inconsistently
   used terms such as Web 2.0, social networking sites and social media need to be properly
   defined (Saxton, Oh & Kishore, 2013). Even in recent years some authors still use the terms
   ‘social media’ and ‘Web 2.0’ as synonyms (Reddick & Norris, 2013) while others even talk
   about ‘Web 2.0 social media’ (Korda & Itani, 2013) or consider social media as a subset/
   part of Web 2.0 (Dang et al., 2014).
   The view that currently seems to be most widely held is that social media are the product
   of Internet-based applications that build on the technological foundations of Web 2.0,
   through which users create online communities to share information, and that collective
   ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA  1093
   intelligence of users encourages more democratic use (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger & Shapiro,
   2012; Kamel Boulos & Wheeler, 2007; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Social media is a collective
   term for the various platforms and applications that allow user-generated content to
   be created and shared. It includes social networks, wikis, content communities, sharing
   sites and blogs. It has transformed Internet users from passive recipients of information
   into active participants in the generation of content (Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden, 2011;
   Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Social networking is a narrower term
   to describe a specific type of social media that allows individuals to construct a public or
   semi-public profile within a bounded system, and articulate a list of other users with whom
   they share a connection (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
   The professional press is full of hype concerning the benefits of implementing social
   media (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001). Yet, beyond this hype, experience shows that social
   media within a company often remains an underused tool for either information technology
   or other departments. The briefly presented case studies in the professional press can serve
   as commercials and certainly inspire managers to embark on similar ventures. However,
   their analyses rarely go beyond ‘the importance of a knowledge-sharing culture’ and cannot
   serve as guidance. Too often the adoption of social media is not controlled (Oliveira &
   Watson-Manheim, 2013). Without a systematic approach to managing social media success,
   enthusiasm for social media applications will fade (Hirschheim, Murungi & Peña, 2012).
   Many authors have extensively studied critical success and failure factors of software
   projects (Trkman, 2010; Vrhovec, Hovelja, Vavpotič & Krisper, 2015). Most concluded
   that corporate social media applications lack efficient information organisation, give little
   credit for users’ contributions, leading to decreased participation, and low-quality assurance
   (Lykourentzou, Papadaki, Vergados, Polemi & Loumos, 2010). While these factors are no
   doubt important, they are more a consequence of bad planning than reasons for failure. A
   thoughtful decision regarding the initial adoption and building of communities is crucial
   (Culnan, McHugh & Zubillaga, 2010).
   The benefits can vary for different social media applications and kinds of shared knowledge
   (Haas & Hansen, 2007). They may include the quicker integration of new employees,
   better collaboration of geographically dispersed units, timeliness of information and
   increased efficiency (Ardichvili et al., 2003). Yet the frequent assumption that the adoption
   of viable and usable knowledge management tools will ultimately lead to time and cost
   savings due to their ease of use and collaborative nature (Grace, 2009) is very dangerous.
   As stated above, this increased performance can materialise in different ways.
   In this respect, the main question is whether the value from social media applications
   differs from ‘normal’ information systems and, consequently, whether a special focus is
   needed at all. Critical success factors from ‘normal’ information systems obviously apply
   here as well, such as the support of top management, proper leadership, communication,
   quality of information systems and motivation and training of end-users (Petter, DeLone &
   McLean, 2008; Trkman, 2010). However, social media applications are different for several
   reasons (Kane, Alavi, Labianca & Borgatti, 2014; Shen et al., 2013):
3. Social media pose challenges for governance and credibility or verification of content
   (Bertot, Jaeger, Munson & Glaisyer, 2010; Matthews & Stephens, 2010). In a
   typical information system, an administrator controls the content and operations.
   Furthermore, strict rules exist regarding who has permission to access or edit which
   1094 M. TRKMAN AND P. TRKMAN
   part of the data, and define the role of the information system in the company’s
   operations. This is usually not the case in a social media application; as a result, its
   purpose can quickly be lost. Therefore, social media initiatives have elevated the
   importance of information technology (I.T.) governance and broader guidelines
   are needed (Deans, 2011).
4. Regarding user involvement, social media changes the conditions for user participation
   (Johnson & Hyysalo, 2012). Users can be forced to enter data about a customer
   in, say, an order management or accounting information system. Furthermore, the
   completeness and quality of those entries can be controlled. It is much harder to
   force a user to improve a wiki post or to share knowledge on Yammer because it is
   hard to specify what improvement means or what a good post is. The role of user
   involvement is thus different depending upon whether the use of the system is
   mandatory or voluntary (Hartwick & Barki, 1994)
5. Similar challenges arise in measuring a social media application’s impact (Murdough,
   2009; Neiger et al., 2012). Managers demand evidence of potential return on an
   investment before investing money or time (Guinan, Parise & Rollag, 2014). Even
   if a manager nominally supports a social media application and attempts to reward
   contributions to it, the lack of measurable outcomes makes this support shortlived.
   A typical story is a fresh-out-of-university software developer whose boss
   first instructed him to update the company’s knowledge base in a social media
   application as frequently as possible. After two months, the same boss criticised
   him for doing so: ‘We cannot bill this to our clients!’
6. The low costs of implementing and running social media applications are exciting
   (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), but may be problematic. First of all, most costs can be
   hidden since the employees themselves often do the work. Even more importantly,
   low costs can make a developed solution fly below the radar of the management. As
   one senior consultant says, ‘The company needs to pay at least $100,000. Otherwise,
   they do not take you seriously.’
   Because of these differences the social media applications require new frameworks for either
   planning or evaluating the achieved business value. Therefore, the next section proposes a
   new design science artefact – a framework for increasing business value from social media.
7. Proposed framework
   3.1. Design science approach
   The paper follows the design science research paradigm which can be seen as a quest
   for understanding and improving human performance. It is solution-oriented, using the
   results of description-oriented research to produce knowledge that can be harnessed when
   designing solutions to field problems (van Aken, 2005). Key elements distinguishing design
   research from behavioural information systems research are the ability to explore new, as yet
   un-theorised areas and the use of constructivist rather than statistical methods (Kuechler
   & Vaishnavi, 2012).
   Design science research involves the construction of a wide range of socio-technical artefacts
   such as decision support systems, governance strategies, and methods for evaluating
   information systems (Gregor & Hevner, 2013). Design science research should be used to
   ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA  1095
   develop practical knowledge not only for the design of novel I.T., but also for its governance
   and management (Carlsson, Henningsson, Hrastinski & Keller, 2011).
   Design science was traditionally considered the provenance of technical disciplines such
   as computer science (Hevner & Chatterjee, 2010). However, it is now a well-established
   research methodology in the information systems discipline in which new knowledge is
   produced by the construction and evaluation of ‘artefacts’ (Kuechler & Vaishnavi, 2012).
   The result of design science research is, by definition, a purposeful I.T. artefact created to
   address an important organisational problem (Hevner, March, Park & Ram, 2004). Artefacts
   should be created in such a way to enable the representation, analysis, understanding and
   development of successful information systems within organisations (March & Storey, 2008).
   The objectives of the proposed artefact need to be clearly identified (Peffers, Tuunanen,
   Rothenberger & Chatterjee, 2007). In this case, the overall objective is the development
   of a ‘framework for increasing business value from social media applications’. The main
   problem is that many companies which invest in social media applications do not know
   how to manage them to drive an increase in the business value. To answer that question,
   the framework offers an organised set of components.
   Previous research has elucidated components that affect the likelihood of a social media
   application bringing business value. Among several research papers, the most interesting
   include a framework for the wiki adoption process (Grace, 2009) or an exploratory model
   to guide organisations in adoption of knowledge maps (Lee & Fink, 2013). Yet, despite
   previous attempts, an easily usable framework generally applicable to various types of social
   media applications is still missing.
   A company needs to develop a strategy congruent with and suited to different social
   media functionalities and the goals (Hovelja, Vasilecas & Rupnik, 2013; Kietzmann
   et al., 2011). Therefore, the framework needs to be quite broad and generic. The differences
   between organisations mean that the approach of one organisation may not work for another
   (Levy, 2009). In addition, the framework should deliver the necessary measures to not only
   use social media applications for knowledge exchange (Matschke, Moskaliuk & Cress, 2012),
   but also to increase the likelihood of their positive impact.
   The framework stipulates that an increase in business value from social media requires:
   a clearly identified purpose of the social media application (what is the intended scope and
   which problems it attempts to address), a carefully chosen technological solution and proper
   involvement of users (which are the main user groups, why the users will be motivated to
   participate, and how they will acquire the needed skills). Afterwards, one can expect a large
   group of readers and consequent business value (for example, improved knowledge of individual
   employees, better decision-making, and lower costs of information management).
   Figure 1 summarises the framework’s (sub)components.
   3.2. Purpose
   3.2.1. Scope
   ‘Artificial’ communities (those initiated by a company) need a careful ex-ante analysis of
   the desired scope of the content. An attempt to capture all knowledge individuals possess
   will lead to chaos, not comprehensiveness. This is even truer of social media applications,
   since they can serve a variety of purposes. As an example: a wiki can be merely a project
   documentation repository, but can also aid software development, e-learning, project and
   1096 M. TRKMAN AND P. TRKMAN
   knowledge management, tech support, innovation and customer relationship management
   (Bastida, McGrath & Maude, 2010).
   The easiest way to identify the scope is to provide social media support for already
   existing communities. Consider the case of Xerox and its Eureka system that supports the
   exchange of knowledge between technicians. The technology did not create a new community,
   but provided support for an already existing one: technicians sharing ‘war stories’
   about successful equipment repairs. Over 95% of Xerox service technicians access Eureka
   daily, with cost savings for Xerox estimated at over USD 30 million annually (Gordon, 2010).
   Often a social media implementation group very strictly defines what information should
   be added to the application. One I.T. service company with 750 employees clearly stated
   it should include certain data about customers and projects. This encompassed glossaries,
   frequently used terms, project names and explanations. However, meeting minutes, project-
   relevant knowledge, knowledge related to interpersonal communication were not to
   be included to avoid confusion with the existing intranet (Stocker & Tochtermann, 2011).
   This last point is especially important – regardless of the scope of a new application, it is
   very likely that several similar tools are already being used. Companies should delineate the
   scope of the new one and, if necessary, bring the operation of the existing tools to an end.
   The purpose of a social media application can even be embedded in its ontology or
   semantics. One wiki intended as a quality management system for software development
   projects had semantic web ontologies which captured its core purpose (García et al., 2010).
   Thus, while the content of a social media application is left to the users, its purpose is firmly
   set by its creators.
   This importance of an embedded purpose may seem in direct contradiction with the
   best-known wiki, namely Wikipedia. Wikipedia is sometimes portrayed as lacking oversight,
   allowing everyone to publish anything. However, closer analysis shows that even Wikipedia
   is an organisation with highly refined policies, norms, and a technological architecture that
   supports organisational ideals (Forte, Larco & Bruckman, 2009). Wikipedia has well-developed
   governance and a clear purpose that arose from a unique set of circumstances and
   Figure 1. A framework for increasing a business value of a social media application. Source: Authors.
   ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA  1097
   pressures from different stakeholders and regulating influences at different points in its
   history (Forte et al., 2009). It is highly unlikely that such a clear purpose and well-
   developed
   governance would arise in company’s social media application without careful ex-ante
   planning.
   3.2.2. Targeted benefit(s)
   A social media application should not simply be a new exciting tool for management or
   the I.T. department. To provide value to an organisation, it must address a clearly specified
   organisational problem. A broad goal such as ‘knowledge sharing’ is too fuzzy. Various possible
   benefits include improving knowledge capture, easing transfer of knowledge, improving
   project or software documentation, and providing greater traceability. The identification of
   targeted benefits is thus even more important because they provide the basis for setting the
   appropriate metrics. An organisation should carefully consider what success of the social
   media application actually means in its particular case and how it should be measured.
   A company should therefore define what success means for the various stages, starting
   from initial implementation to yearly benchmarks (Thackeray, Neiger, Smith & Van
   Wagenen, 2012). The value of such exercises goes beyond the tracking of progress; it serves
   to assure that all stakeholders (for example, different top managers, middle managers and
   key users) share the same view of the targeted benefits.
   3.3. Technology
   The purpose of a social media application is closely connected with the choice of a proper
   technological solution (Berthon et al., 2012; Kovačič, Bosilj Vuksić & Lončar, 2006). For
   example, in the case of wikis many different wiki software items exist (see http://www.wikimatrix.
   org) including open-source software such as MediaWiki, TWiki, WikiWikiWeb, and
   commercial solutions such as Confluence and Socialtext (Kiniti & Standing, 2013). With
   so many alternatives, it is important to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each.
   TWiki pages can include forms for use in issue tracking or building other wiki applications.
   MediaWiki lacks such features but is popular as a project cooperation platform because it
   is familiar (thanks to its use by Wikipedia) (Louridas, 2006). Yet a few desirable functionalities
   are missing. While they can be provided with the installation of various extensions
   (Trkman & Trkman, 2009), this requires extra effort by developers and consequently raises
   the implementation costs.
   Guides to social media implementation often assume its applications are easy to install
   and even easier to maintain, requiring no work from I.T. except installation and regular
   backups, as well as being easy to integrate into existing technology infrastructure. There
   should almost never be any problems and the training and troubleshooting should be
   minimal and require very little additional time investment. The nature of the software and
   ease of its use should draw users in naturally (Bastida et al., 2010).
   However, this is a dangerous assumption, far from the reality. Several important questions
   regarding the technology need to be answered. They include installation requirements, ease
   of installation, support for attachments, permissions, page locking and other authentication
   features, and which third-party installable extensions are available. Novell, for instance, uses
   TWiki because it offers one crucial function: the ability to put access control on certain
   1098 M. TRKMAN AND P. TRKMAN
   pieces of content. Selected content should only be shared within the team, not around the
   company (Weinschenk, 2007).
   3.4. User involvement
   For any social media application to add value, user involvement is crucial. Success is not
   possible without user-generated content and users’ creativity (Kiniti & Standing, 2013).
   Low employee acceptance is the main impediment here, so it is important to understand
   employees’ motivation for usage (Leftheriotis & Giannakos, 2014). To ensure the active
   involvement of users, the following subcomponents are important.
   3.4.1. User groups
   Only a small proportion of users are likely to actively contribute. For example, only 0.1% of
   Wikipedia visitors are active contributors. Companies cannot rely on such a low percentage
   to develop a vibrant community in their social media application since collaborative tools
   often support relatively small groups (Arazy et al., 2009; Garcia-Perez & Ayres, 2010). It is
   thus highly unlikely that random activity by users will generate enough knowledge base to
   serve as a good starting point for enhancements of information and structure. To be vibrant,
   a community needs a proper combination of active (those posting new contributions) and
   passive (those reading, using online search or posting questions) members (Ardichvili
   et al., 2003; Trkman & Trkman, 2009).
   Companies should put a core group of users in charge of preparing the initial content.
   These users can then provide the motivation, guidance and useful content to other potential
   users. Even the Wikipedia community, which seems disorganised at first sight, has
   remained healthy due to continued presence of ‘old-timers’ who carry a set of social norms
   and organisational ideals (Forte et al., 2009).
   An interesting example of assuring users’ proper involvement is a wiki implementation
   at Hewlett-Packard Analytics. It appointed 4% of its employees as so-called single points of
   contact to serve as wiki champions for their department/group. Hewlett-Packard Analytics
   had about 40 such employees meant to drive the wiki’s development further (Teo, Nishant,
   Goh & Agarwal, 2011). In a similar fashion, a German commercial bank officially asked key
   employees to dedicate a certain percentage of their working time to develop the content.
   In a more open way, active users do not necessarily have to be the company’s employees.
   A social media application can extend beyond knowledge management within an organisation
   to allow customers to participate in joint content development and ‘peer production’
   of content (Sipior et al., 2014; Wagner & Majchrzak, 2006–2007). For example, if a
   customer needs access to project documentation, they can be provided with access to the
   wiki. In addition, the customer can also contribute to developing that documentation. An
   important decision in this regard is who can have active or passive access to the content.
   Often a department within a company may be unwilling to reveal its knowledge to outsiders
   from a different department or even a different company. Managing the risks connected to
   knowledge sharing and overall use of social media is thus vital (Trkman & Desouza, 2012).
   3.4.2. User motivation
   A well-known fact from ‘conventional’ information systems is that systems do not increase
   business value; users do. If the desired improvement conflicts with user motivation, a system
   ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA  1099
   alone will not solve the problem; either people’s incentives or the system should be changed
   (Markus & Keil, 1994).
   The main motives for participation in a social media application are the perceived value
   of own contributions, the expectation of individual benefits, perceived enjoyment, and
   encouragement from colleagues. In addition, expected reciprocity and social ties play a
   crucial role (Stocker & Tochtermann, 2011). Colleagues can have a positive influence on
   an application’s acceptance, but can also have a negative one if some do not believe in it or
   consider it a waste of time (Lee & Fink, 2013). Although sharing knowledge can enhance
   the sharer’s reputation and expand his/her influence (Lin, 2007; Wasko & Faraj, 2005), these
   benefits may not be persuasive enough when sharing one’s knowledge is seen as costly. The
   perceived costs do not just include invested time but also a threat to self-interest, potential
   abuse of knowledge by the recipient or the giving away of power.