Philip Raeth

Antecedents and Consequences of Corporate Weblog Usage in the Intranet: A Process Perspective

Widely discussed in the mass media, Web 2.0, or social software, has also drawn the attention of researchers, developing into a whole new research area. With Web 2.0s further development, corporations aim to adopt its technologies and transfer its benefits, such as enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing, to their organizations. Whether any of these benefits also apply in an organizational context and whether there are further, still uncovered, benefits remains unclear. Furthermore, research in this area is still in its early stages, thus hampering progress towards qualitative and quantitative models that could provide answers. In order to encourage further progress in this area, we reviewed the existing research on corporate blogging and identified 24 articles that investigate the topic. Using the framework by Ives et al. [18], we categorized the articles for further analysis. By means of process theory, we build a conceptual model and identify the antecedents and consequences of internal corporate weblog usage. Our findings suggest that usage is driven by organizational culture, as well as by attitudes towards blogging. In addition, the benefits of weblog usage are centered on community benefits.

The Impact of Organizational Social Web Site Usage on Work Performance: A Multilevel Structural Interaction Perspective

Recent research endeavors have shown that knowledge sharing improves not only organizational idea development and innovation, but also work performance. In that matter, IS researchers have mostly focused on macro level analyses. We address this by developing a multilevel model for investigating the impact of organizational social web site (SWS) usage on individual and team performance. Our paper addresses this gap by drawing on existing guidelines for multilevel theorizing. We propose that team SWS usage impacts individual and team performance through its improved structural collaboration capabilities. Organizational learning, social capital, and network theories serve as the theoretical basis. Ultimately, we present a multilevel model as the foundation for future empirical research. Our researchs contribution lies in the theoretical derivation of a multilevel model.

Towards a Model of Employee Weblog Usage: A Process-Oriented Analysis of Antecedents and Consequences

The recent rise of Web 2.0 ideas, principles, and applications has significantly affected the communication and interaction in social networks. While Web 2.0’s Internet usage and benefits have been investigated, certain questions are still unanswered: whether benefits such as enhanced collaboration and knowledge sharing also apply in an organizational context and whether there are more, still uncovered, benefits. Since research on the corporate adoption and use of Web 2.0 technologies is still in its early stages, neither qualitative nor quantitative models that could provide answers have been proposed. As a starting point for further developing this research stream, the authors collected and reviewed the literature on internal corporate blogging. Then the framework by Ives et al. (1980) was chosen to categorize the identified 25 articles for further analysis. The paper describes building a conceptual model and identifying the antecedents and consequences of employee weblog usage within corporations. The findings of the review suggest that employee blogging in corporations is a social and an organizational phenomenon. Individual perceptions and attitudes, peers, and cultures have a crucial influence on weblog usage, while the organization and its culture provide a framework.