The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on knowledge sharing in UK higher education

Purpose The paper aims to explore “content” factors influencing consumptive and contributive use of enterprise social networking within UK higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The methodology uses genre analysis and grounded theory to analyse empirical data from posts obtained through Microsoft Yammer and a focus group. Findings The findings reveal the motivators-outcomes-strategies and the barriers-outcomes-strategies of users. Motivators (M) include feature value, Information value, organizational requirement and adequate organizational and technical support. Barriers (B) include six factors, including resisting engagement on the online platform, emotional anxiety, loss of knowledge, the lack of organizational pressure, lack of content quality and lack of time. An Outcomes (O) framework reveals benefits and dis-benefits and strategies (S) relating to improving user engagement. Practical implications The research method and resultant model may serve as guidelines to higher educational establishments interested in motivating their staff and scholars around the use of enterprise social network (ESN) systems, especially during face-to-face restrictions. Originality/value This research study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic which provides a unique setting to examine consumptive and contributive user behaviour of ESN’s. Furthermore, the study develops a greater understanding of “content” factors leading to the benefits or dis-benefits of ESN use, drawing on user motivators, barriers and strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK education.

Antecedents and outcomes of enterprise social network usage within UK higher education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing knowledge sharing on enterprise social network (ESN) use behaviour among academic staff in universities, using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) as the underlying research framework Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework was created by extending the UTAUT by incorporating three additional factors, namely, feature value (FV), relationship expectancy (RE) and professional benefits. A quantitative approach based on the survey was used to collect data from 254 academic staff. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings The result indicated significant differences around factors influencing both consumptive and contributive usage patterns within ESNs. These factors suggest more contributive than consumptive use. Research limitations/implications Future research should consider a longitudinal study focusing on the change in ESN use behaviour among academic staff and the fundamental aspects influencing this change. Originality/value This study extends the UTAUT model by incorporating three additional factors: FV, RE and professional benefits, to study ESN use behaviour in a higher education context. This study has significantly modified UTAUT to include the dynamic nature of ESN usage.

Identification of Enterprise Social Network (ESN) Group Archetypes in ESN Analytics

With the proliferation of Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), the measurement of ESN activity becomes increasingly relevant. The emerging field of ESN analytics aims to develop metrics and models to measure and classify user activity to support organisational goals and outcomes. In this paper we focus on a neglected area of ESN analytics, the classification of activity in ESN groups. We engage in explorative research to identify a set of metrics that divides an ESN group sample into distinct types. We collaborate with Sydney-based service provider SWOOP Analytics who provided access to actual ESN meta data describing activity in 350 groups across three organisations. By employing clustering techniques, we derive a set of four group types: broadcast streams, information forums, communities of practice and project teams. We collect and reflect on feedback from ESN champions in fourteen organisations. For ESN analytics research we contribute a set of metrics and group types. For practice we envision a method that enables group managers to compare aspirations for their groups to embody a certain group type, with actual activity patterns.

Enterprise social network (ESN) systems and knowledge sharing: what makes it work for users?

Purpose Enterprise Social Network (ESN) systems have emerged as the technology of choice to bolster and support organizational efforts for harnessing embedded knowledge. However, a lack of understanding about it limits the optimization of its potential. Hence, this paper aims to assess the role of hedonic motivation, network externalities (NE) and top management support in conjugation with the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology theory to understand ESN’s usage for knowledge sharing. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 187 ESN users through a survey questionnaire and subsequently analyzed using variance-based structural equation modeling using the partial least squares method. Findings ESNs are used both for utilitarian and hedonic purposes. Furthermore, the results also bring out the importance of externalities arising from an extensive network of users and complimentary services, as well as support regarding resources and recognition from the top management toward reinforcing the benefits of using ESNs. Research limitations/implications This study advances earlier knowledge by assessing the actual usage of ESNs for knowledge sharing. It takes into consideration multiple input variables, namely, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, NE amongst others to best resonate with the key factors driving its adoption and usage by an individual. However, because of the cross-sectional research design, causality can only be inferred. Practical implications The organizations are recommended to have in place the measures for attaining optimal usage of ESNs, and in turn, witness knowledge moves around in ways unfathomable. Steps should be taken to develop tools and ecosystems to provide users affordances for both increasing productivity, as well as opportunities for gaining pleasure. Originality/value This study is one of its kind effort to synthesize the knowledge about the ESNs in an Indian context. It provides fascinating insights into the determinants of intention and usage of ESNs for knowledge sharing.

An Experimental Analytics on Discovering Work Transference Networks from Workflow Enactment Event Logs

Work transference network is a type of enterprise social network centered on the interactions among performers participating in the workflow processes. It is thought that the work transference networks hidden in workflow enactment histories are able to denote not only the structure of the enterprise social network among performers but also imply the degrees of relevancy and intensity between them. The purpose of this paper is to devise a framework that can discover and analyze work transference networks from workflow enactment event logs. The framework includes a series of conceptual definitions to formally describe the overall procedure of the network discovery. To support this conceptual framework, we implement a system that provides functionalities for the discovery, analysis and visualization steps. As a sanity check for the framework, we carry out a mining experiment on a dataset of real-life event logs by using the implemented system. The experiment results show that the framework is valid in discovering transference networks correctly and providing primitive knowledge pertaining to the discovered networks. Finally, we expect that the analytics of the work transference network facilitates assessing the workflow fidelity in human resource planning and its observed performance, and eventually enhances the workflow process from the organizational aspect.