Citizen behaviors, enterprise social media and firm performance

Abstract

PurposeThe goal of this study is twofold: first, it seeks to investigate how enterprise social media (ESM) usage contributes to firm performance, especially through operational performance metrics; second, to identify the ESM users’ behaviors that help to improve firm performance.Design/methodology/approachAn interpretive case study of a medium-sized manufacturing company in the food industry. After developing a theoretical framework, an exploratory research was undertaken about the use of an ESM. Qualitative methods were adopted for data collection and analytic induction for data analysis, using structural and descriptive coding. A series of semi-structured interviews with senior managers and middle-managers were conducted. Operations performance metrics were also assessed through documentary analysis before and after the implementation of the ESM.FindingsThe study integrates concepts and theories from across three main fields of research, namely organizational behaviors, management and information systems. It complements the extant research on ESM by providing a new theoretical framework that connects ESM use with firm performance. Empirical findings suggest that ESM contributes to firm performance through social capital development fostered by organizational citizenship behaviors. The emergence of leadership development has been also observed.Research limitations/implicationsThe exploratory nature of the study combined with the fact that it has been conducted within a single organization greatly limits the generalization of the findings.Practical implicationsManagers can use the findings of this study as a support of a successful ESM implementation. Besides, it provides references for practitioners aiming to use and evaluate ESM and their corresponding citizenship behaviors within a manufacturing milieu.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to bring a multi-disciplinary perspective of the contribution of ESM usage on firm performance-based in a social capital enacted by organizational citizenship behaviors. These understandings add new insights to the literature and establish new theoretical connections between organizational citizenship behaviors, ESM use and social capital that also allowed to emerge leadership development.

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

“…, 2019b), supervisor–subordinate ties based on ESM (Wang et al. , 2022a), intrinsic motivation (Yousaf et al ., 2022), and citizenship behaviors (Caya and Mosconi, 2022) – to name a few.…”

“…There were studies that examined the impact of ESM use on organizational-level outcomes , such as firm performance (Caya and Mosconi, 2022), HR practices (Offong and Costello, 2017), competence management (Braun et al ., 2012), innovation (Leonardi, 2014), product innovation (Mpandare and Li, 2020) and team performance (Zandi et al ., 2021). Few HR-related outcome indicators were also explored, such as – employee turnover (Yingjie et al ., 2019), employee satisfaction (Men, 2014), job satisfaction, employee engagement (Sharma and Bhatnagar, 2016), work engagement (Sun et al.…”

“…The literature review revealed several interesting antecedents that link to ESM use, such astransformational leadership (Men, 2014), network sharing (Kwahk and Park, 2016), workplace conflict (Pitafi et al, 2018;Pitafi et al, 2020a), psychological safety (Pitafi et al, 2019), newcomers' work-related use of ESM (Sun et al, 2019b), supervisor-subordinate ties based on ESM (Wang et al, 2022a), intrinsic motivation (Yousaf et al, 2022), and citizenship behaviors (Caya and Mosconi, 2022) to name a few.…”

“…There were studies that examined the impact of ESM use on organizational-level outcomes, such as firm performance (Caya and Mosconi, 2022), HR practices (Offong and Costello, 2017), competence management (Braun et al, 2012), innovation (Leonardi, 2014), product innovation (Mpandare and Li, 2020) and team performance (Zandi et al, 2021). Few HR-related outcome indicators were also explored, such asemployee turnover (Yingjie et al, 2019), employee satisfaction (Men, 2014), job satisfaction, employee engagement (Sharma and Bhatnagar, 2016), work engagement (Sun et al, 2022) and thriving at work (Sun et al, 2019b); Some important mediators/moderators identified in the literature review areemployee psychological conditions (Cai et al, 2018), task-technology fit, communication quality (Pitafi et al, 2019), perceived task structure and team diversity (Deng et al, 2020), market orientation (Mpandare and Li, 2020), IT proficiency and work expertise (Pitafi et al, 2020a, b), ESM visibility and workplace integration (Zandi et al, 2021), transactive memory (Sun et al, 2021), ESM-related strain (Pitafi and Ren, 2021), communication transparency and personal blogging (Masood et al, 2022) and innovative cultureto name a few.…”

“…Also, OL theorists with the technical view emphasizes that learning emerges from technology or information systems (Levinthal and March 1993) and from information processing (Senge, 1990). (Caya, & Mosconi, 2022) Moderators/Mediators Hence, in today's digital age, social media platforms are likely to promote OLC enablers such as interaction, dialogue, participation, risk-taking and experimentation. One of the major inhibitors to build OLC is to know where the expertise lies in the organization and share it with organizational members (Chow and Chan, 2008).…”