Adoption, Motivation and Success Factors of Social Media
for Team Collaboration in SMEs
Michael Zeiller
University of Applied Sciences Burgenland,
Eisenstadt, Austria
michael.zeiller@fh-burgenland.at
ABSTRACT
In team collaboration we deal with collaboration among team
members that may either belong to the same enterprise (intra-
enterprise collaboration) or among team members belonging to
different companies (e.g., in research projects). Social media
provide an efficient and accessible means of encouraging and
supporting team members working together on shared objects,
i.e., performing collaborative tasks within these teams. Due to
ease of use and access, especially small or medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) may profit a lot from social media in team
collaboration. Based on a number of case studies on the
application of social media in SMEs, we analyze the adoption and
implementation, the motivation of team members and their
benefit, and success factors of the utilization of social media for
team collaboration. To provide a set of case studies that allow for
detailed comparison and in-depth analysis of multiple case
studies, a standardized case study structure is introduced.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
H.5.3 [Information Interfaces and Presentation] Group and
Organization Interfaces collaborative computing.
General Terms
Management, Documentation, Performance, Human Factors.
Keywords
Social media, electronic collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, case study,
adoption, success factor, SME.
1. INTRODUCTION
Social software applications like wikis, weblogs, image and video
sharing, microblogging, and social networks are used by many
people to collaboratively create and share information and
knowledge with friends, colleagues and other users. McAfee [1]
first introduced the term Enterprise 2.0 in his trend-setting paper
Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration, where he
discusses how companies can benefit from Web 2.0 technologies
to support knowledge workers. McAfee defines Enterprise 2.0 as
the use of emergent social software platforms within companies,
or between companies and their partners or customers [2].
Bettina Schauer
University of Applied Sciences Burgenland,
Eisenstadt, Austria
bettina.schauer@fh-burgenland.at
Utilization of social media within enterprises and organizations
has significantly increased within the last years. Weblogs, for
example, are often used as project logs or to communicate
between the CEO or head of marketing and the companys
customers [3][4][5]. Wikis are used by an enterprises knowledge
workers to create a shared knowledge base of common terms
[3][4][6]. Intra-enterprise social networking platforms may be
created to support a corporate yellow pages system to identify a
companys experts [3][7]. Thus, social software helps employees
and team members to work together on cognitive tasks and share
information and knowledge.
Especially small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit
greatly from easy to use and easy to implement software
applications like social software. However, most scientific studies
and reports deal with the utilization of social software by large-
scale enterprises (LE) or at least large medium-sized enterprises.
Since SMEs may benefit even more from using social media for
team collaboration than LEs, but have seldom been analyzed, we
focus entirely on the characteristics and the needs of SMEs on
social media utilization. Enterprises and teams within enterprises
that want to take advantage of social software are confronted with
questions like the best adoption and implementation strategies,
how to get maximum companywide benefit respectively best
individual benefit for the user, how to motivate users to
participate, and many more. Concerning adoption strategies, for
example, bottom-up approaches initiated by small groups of
innovative users are quite common with social software
applications, but also top-down approaches can be found [8].
In this paper, we analyze adoption, motivation, and success
factors of social media within small or medium-sized enterprises
applying a research approach based on multiple case studies. We
investigate which accompanying measures are taken by SMEs to
support the use of newly introduced social software applications.
Using a cross-case analysis of case studies conducted in SMEs,
we identify motivating factors that encourage users in SMEs to
use social media for team collaboration. Finally, we attempt to
find out which critical success factors can be found when SMEs
implement social software applications within the enterprise.
In Section 2, we discuss basic terms and definitions to narrow
down the research area and present related case study-based
research. Section 3 gives a brief overview of case study research
and introduces an appropriate structure for standardized case
studies in SMEs. Section 4 presents the cross-case analysis
discussing the central research questions and in Section 5, we
discuss the results of the case analysis. Section 6 concludes the
paper.
2. SOCIAL MEDIA IN ELECTRONIC
COLLABORATION
2.1 Social Software and Social Media
A single, unambiguous, universal definition of social software and
social media does not exist due to the ambiguity of this term and
the related applications. A great number of definitions and
explanatory notes have been published since the term social
software was used for the first time in 1985 in information
technology [9]. Since 2002 and especially since 2005 in
combination with the term Web 2.0, it has been used as a buzz
phrase to demonstrate changes of the World Wide Web. Allen
[10] refers to a simple explanation by Shirky, who defined social
software as software that supports group interaction. All these
definitions have in common that social software supports and
encourages communication, social interaction and collaboration
among people and generates added value in a network of people.
Social software can be characterized in many ways: by
enumerating social software tools, by identifying attributes and by
setting up categories for classification. Among many others,
enumerating approaches have been followed by Cook [3], Kaplan
and Haenlein [11] and Hinchcliffe [12]. In Cook [3] we find the
statement: Practically, social media is often defined by the
categories of software tools that people use (), be it categories
such as blogs, podcasts, wikis and social networking ().
2.2 Electronic Collaboration
Collaboration describes the joint work of a group of people on
shared objects, where people share common goals and are jointly
responsible for the outcome [13]. The AIIM defines collaboration
as a working practice whereby individuals work together to a
common purpose to achieve business benefit [14]. Collaboration
can be found among various groups of people: members of a
single department, members of a project team, or customers might
collaborate with staff members of an enterprise. In this paper, we
focus on collaboration among members of a team (e.g. members
of a research project). Team members may belong to a single
organization (intra-enterprise collaboration), but also be part of
different organizations (cross-enterprise collaboration).
Electronic collaboration (E-Collaboration) makes use of
computer-based information systems to support collaborative
work. Kock [15] defines electronic collaboration as collaboration
using electronic technologies among different individuals to
accomplish a common task. E-Collaboration systems are
software for supporting communication, coordination and
cooperation between people processes in groups [13].
Comprehensive E-Collaboration systems should cover all types of
social interaction in collaborative team processes:
communication, coordination, cooperation plus connection
[3][16]. Social software applications support these basic
interaction processes.
2.3 Related Work
Several case studies on the utilization of social software in
enterprises show a diverse area of application in Enterprise 2.0
implementations [17][18]. A comparative study on the utilization
of social media in enterprises has been presented e.g. by Fuchs-
Kittowski et al. [19]. Multiple-case study research has been
applied e.g. by Stocker and Tochtermann on weblogs and wikis
[4][5][6], by Richter on social networking services [7] and others
on Web 2.0 and social software applications [8][20].
The Cooperation Systems Center Munich1, Germany started a
project on Enterprise 2.0 case studies in 2009 with the aim of
collecting case studies on the application of social software in
enterprises. Together with teams from University St. Gallen,
Switzerland, the European Business School, and Technical
University Graz, Austria, the Enterprise 2.0 Case Study Network2
was started [21]. This research network collects case studies
following a uniform case template which are authored by experts.
3. CASE STUDY RESEARCH ON SOCIAL
MEDIA IN E-COLLABORATION
The case study method is often applied in knowledge
management research since it has a broad applicability. Hence,
there are different kinds of case studies depending on the
underlying research design [22][23].
3.1 Research Cases
According to Yin [22], a case study is an empirical inquiry that
investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its
real-life context, especially when the boundaries between
phenomenon und context are not clearly evident. Yin [22]
differentiates between three basic types: exploratory case study,
explanatory case study, and descriptive case study. Each of these
approaches can either be single or multiple case studies where a
multiple design must follow a replication rather than a sampling
logic. The case structure proposed in this paper follows the linear-
analytical structure, which is applied to descriptive case studies
and is the basis for a multiple case study.
Descriptive cases require the investigator to start with a
descriptive theory. This type of study depends on the formation of
hypotheses of cause-effect relationships. Yin proposes six
illustrative structures that can be used by authors for case study
composition: linear-analytical, comparative, chronological,
theory-building, suspense and unsequenced structures [22]. The
most commonly used is the linear-analytical structure where the
sequence of subtopics starts with the issue or problem being
studied and a review of the relevant prior literature. The subtopics
then proceed to cover the methods used, the findings from the
data collected and analyzed, and the conclusions and implications
from the findings [22].
3.2 Research Approach
To be able to answer the research questions on the utilization of
social media in SMEs for team collaboration, we carried out a
cross-case analysis following these steps (see Eisenhardt [23]):
1. setting up the research questions,
2. setting up a multiple design and developing a standardized
structure for case studies focusing on concepts of interest,
3. selecting a sufficient number of cases (restricted to SMEs),
4. collecting data,
5. analyzing data (within-case data analysis for these cases),
6. writing case studies (i.e. documents) based on the
comparative structure multiple cases studies,
7. performing a qualitative content analysis focusing on
selected concepts (cross-case analysis) [24][25],
8. interpreting and shaping hypotheses.
1
http://www.kooperationssysteme.de/
2
http://www.e20cases.org/?lang=en
Several cases were created using the same, identical structure,
thus resulting in a compilation of case studies termed
comparative structures by Yin [22]. Collecting data for the case
studies was carried out primarily by semi-structured qualitative
interviews. Interviews with key players in initiating and
implementing the social software in enterprises under
examination proved to be the best primary source of information.
Interviews as the main source of information were supplemented
by WWW-based information search, document analysis and in
rare cases, participatory observation.
3.3 A Standardized Structure for
E-Collaboration Case Studies
Similar to the uniform case template of the Enterprise 2.0 Case
Study Network [21], our multiple case study approach is based on
a standardized structure of case studies. Some sections in our case
studies are related to segments found in the Enterprise 2.0 Case
Study Network [21] (see Section 2.3) since we share a similar
topic. However, our cases have a more narrow focus. Thus, the
proposed case study structure includes some more specific topics
(e.g. on teams, collaboration, adoption, obstacles, challenges).
The detailed description of each case is composed of
1. a description of the enterprise and the business environment,
2. the initial situation and problem statement,
3. a detailed description of the use case, including application
scenario, processes, application of the social software tool,
technical facts and tool implementation,
4. achievements and experiences,
5. analysis of success factors and barriers.
3.3.1 Business Environment
The first section of a case study consists of basic information on
the enterprise under investigation, complemented by information
on products and services, on customers and target groups, and
corporate strategy. In addition, it is necessary to find out which
kind of information systems, hardware and (social) software are
being used, whether an IT strategy exists and if it comprises
social software.
3.3.2 Initial Situation and Problem Statement
This section describes the initial situation in the enterprise and the
problem that led to the introduction of social software for team
collaboration. The objectives and expectations of using the new
tool are identified. Since social software will support people
working in teams, it is also important to determine which type of
team they are working in (e.g. networked team, project team,
production team, management team), how teams are structured,
which team culture prevails, and how willing team members are
to share their knowledge and to collaborate.
3.3.3 Use Case
The third section starts with a description of the scenario of the
utilization of the social software tool. Then we identify and
document which kinds of business processes are supported by the
new application. We are interested especially in changes of
processes caused by the use of social software. The next
subsections describe the applications view including functions,
data, kind of usage (users, frequency and average duration of
usage, etc.) and interdependencies with other applications, as well
as the technical view of the application. This includes basic facts
of the software product as well as its information and software
architecture, its integration into the IT infrastructure and
interfaces to other applications. In the following subsection, we
document the implementation process of the social software
application. Facts of interest are e.g. who started the project, who
promoted it and who was involved right from the beginning.
Project constraints are described as well as phases of
implementation. In the last subsection of the use case, we
document accompanying measures during rollout of the software
among the team members. We are interested in involved persons
(in-house employees or external experts), whether promoters and
opinion formers were engaged or training was offered.
3.3.4 Achievements and Experiences
We would like to know whether the tool is accepted by the team
members (employees) and, if problems arose, how they have been
dealt with. Objectives are defined in advance by the company (see
Section 3.3.2), but have they been achieved? When doing
research on social media, it is interesting to know whether the
achievement of objectives has been evaluated and how this was
done. Criteria of performance measurement are documented if
they are available. Finally, the achieved results with the help of
the social media tool are described. Challenges that arose during
the course of the project and how the have been coped with are
documented as well.
3.3.5 Success Factors and Barriers
Assuming that the social media project was successful, we
document the critical factors for success and difficulties. We
record positive and negative changes due to the introduced social
software application on processes, team structure, team
communication and collaboration, and efficiency. Of course we
document lessons learned. The case study ends with the authors
overall conclusion.
4. CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS
Since our main interest is in SMEs, we have restricted the cases
and enterprises under examination to small or medium-sized
enterprises (following the SME definition by the European Union,
Recommendation 2003/361/EC [26]). In this section, we present
the results of a cross-case analysis using a selection of six case
studies based on the standardized structure presented in Section
3.3. These case studies were compiled from European SMEs from
June to December 2010 [27].
We address three critical aspects of the utilization of social media
in enterprises: adoption and implementation (including
accompanying measures), motivation of users and their benefit
(including user acceptance), and success factors. For each of
these, we present the results of the cross-case analysis, describe
characteristics and derive distinctive features for SMEs.
4.1 Cases
The cross-case analysis is based on six case studies of social
media utilization in SMEs. Three enterprises use a wiki, one
enterprise implemented a weblog, one enterprise uses a social
networking service and one enterprise applies social tagging. Four
of the six enterprises belong to the industrial sector information
and communication (according to NACE code). One enterprise
applies social software for cross-enterprise collaboration in a
research project, whereas the other five cases describe intra-
enterprise collaboration. In two of the latter cases, all employees The aim of using a wiki for the documentation of the software
use the social software application, while in the other cases, solutions developed by Winterheller, a software developing
utilization is restricted to teams within the enterprise. Table 1 company, was to provide users with access to up-to-date product
presents basic facts and figures on these enterprises. information. Additionally, the process of writing the manuals
should be simplified and speeded up [27]. Previously, manuals
Table 1. Case Details were written by one person in two to three months. Now, software
Company Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller documentation is created collaboratively by all software
details Lietz
developers within the wiki in a continuous way.
Name Lietz GmbH Center for Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller
social Webservices Internet GmbH Software
research GmbH Entertain- GmbH
ment 4.2 Adoption and Implementation
Solutions One of the basic questions when starting a social media initiative
GmbH
Industrial Wholesale Professio- Information Information Information Information
concerns the adoption strategy [3][6][8]. Adoption strategies may
sector and retail nal, and and and and either be top-down, i.e. initiated by the management, or started
trade scientific communi- communi- communi- communi- bottom-up by a small number of employees. Grassroots initiatives
and cation cation cation cation
technical are typical for social software adoption. Furthermore, the social
activities software can either be used just by the members of a team or
Application Task Inter- Task Intranet Company Product within the whole organization, depending on the objectives of
Manage- Organiza- Tagging Greenwiki Blog Documen-
ment tional tation Wiki applying the solution. Another option called incremental rollout
Wiki.Lietz Project (refer to Table 3) indicates that the application is first used by a
Platform
Wiki Social Tagging Wiki Weblog Wiki
team and in a second step, extended to further teams or the whole
Social
software Networking organization. In addition, activities supporting the use of the
Software MediaWiki Ning Factline MediaWiki WordPress MediaWiki social software application were analyzed. Accompanying
product Community measures cover promoting the new system and providing training
Server
Number of 200 35 12 160 27 150
or online support. This can be a contact person or support team
employees that offers assistance for employees who need guidance using the
Number of 4 65 8 160 27 15 system. Key users are early adopters who provide content or
users communicate with the help of the system in order to motivate
others to use it as well.
Autohaus Lietz uses a wiki for task management [27]. Prior to
using the wiki, tasks were assigned per email. The wiki provides
4.2.1 Adoption
easy access to tasks, a good overview, status reporting and
In four of the six cases, implementation of the social software was
transparency. Furthermore, the description of tasks is archived in
initiated top-down by the management or the project manager. At
the wiki, so it can be reused as needed.
the research center CSR, the project manager was the creator of
The research center for social research (short: CSR; full name the network and responsible for the inter-organizational project
made anonymous for confidentiality) uses the social networking platform. The Greenwiki was started by the CTO of Greentube
tool Ning for its researchers to collaborate with 15 partner and the weblog at IQ mobile was initiated by the CEO.
institutions within an international research project [27]. A Organizing the documentation process at Winterheller with the
platform for communication, coordination and collaboration of help of a wiki was started by the management, who set off the use
the team members was required that included all the critical of social software top-down. In the cases of Autohaus Lietz and
information about the project and the documentation of all Factline, the use of the social software tool was initiated bottom-
communication. up by the employees. In both cases, task management was
implemented with the help of social software. The idea to use a
The aim of implementing a task tagging system at Factline was to wiki for task management at Autohaus Lietz was raised by an
provide a task management solution including an overview of all external IT consultant and adopted by the head of the IT
tasks ordered by priority and responsibility as well as status department. The task tagging system at Factline was implemented
control and history of the tasks [27]. Until then, task management and developed on the initiative of one employee, who developed
was organized with the help of the companys self-developed the system.
platform in a conventional way, which was getting extremely
complex to manage. Table 2. Adoption Strategy
Adoption Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller
The Greenwiki at Greentube was started because of the rapid Lietz
growth of the company from 20 to 160 employees in 5 years [27].
Top-down { {
Therefore, easy and central access for all employees to basic
information concerning the company, guidelines, policies, events, Bottom-up { { { {
contacts, user profiles, and software updates became necessary
and was realised with the help of a wiki. In the six analyzed SMEs top-down strategies dominated (Table
2). Only in two SMEs was the introduction of social media
In a similar way, IQ mobile, a mobile marketing company, initiated bottom-up. This is a surprising result as bottom-up
recognized the necessity for a companywide information approaches set off by small groups of innovative users are usually
platform, containing news, market information, technological quite common with social software applications [8]. However, in
trends, and basic information on customers and events [27]. These SMEs, top-down approaches can be found more often than in
needs were met with a weblog. large-scale enterprises [28]. Due to the much smaller number of
employees, SMEs often lack a critical mass of users that start
grassroots initiatives. The leading role of top management
dominates daily business and day-to-day operations much more in
SMEs than in LEs, which affects starting new initiatives
concerning modes of operation.
At Greentube, the wiki has been available for all employees from
the beginning. At IQ mobile, writing access to the weblog was
reduced to some employees in the beginning. This resulted in very
low rates of participation and after an organizational relaunch, all
employees were then allowed to contribute. At Winterheller, the
wiki is not used by the whole organization, but mainly by the
software developers, as intended. At Autohaus Lietz, the wiki is
only used by the four team members of the IT department who
started the wiki. Similarly, at CSR, access to the social
networking tool is limited only to those researchers who were part
of the inter-organizational research project. The first prototype of
the task tagging system at Factline was presented to the CEO,
who agreed to using the new system. The rollout was conducted
by the developer of the system. The other employees started using
it one after the other, and now it is used companywide by all
employees, also in the branch abroad.
Table 3. Utilization
Utilization Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller
Lietz
Team { { { 4.3 Motivation and Acceptance
Company-wide { { { {
Incremental
rollout { { { {
The task tagging application at Factline represents our only case
of an incremental rollout. Due to the small number of employees
in SMEs, in three cases (including Factline) social software was
used companywide. In the other three cases, it was applied in
teams, as the application of the systems was only relevant for the
collaboration of the team members. Thus, both scenarios of
utilization limited use as well as companywide use can be
found in our case studies and it can be assumed that both
approaches are equally important in practice.
4.2.2 Accompanying Measures
In most cases, no training was provided for the users of the social
software application. However, in five of the six cases, there was
a contact person or support team who provided help on how to use
the new system. The project platform at CSR was presented to the
project team in the kick-off meeting of the research project. An
online document with guidelines and support information was
provided by the project leader. For those team members who still
had trouble using the platform support was provided by the
project leader. The task tagging system at Factline was introduced
by the developer and due to the small number of employees at
Factline, it was explained to each team member personally. The
developer served as a key user and started assigning tasks with the
tagging system. The wiki at Winterheller was accompanied by a
contact person for support. Hints on how to write and publish an
article could also be found in the company blog.
At Greentube, there was an information page within the wiki that
provided support for creating new content and linking. In case
users needed support, other team members offered individual
training sessions. IQ mobile did not provide any training for the
weblog as using the tool was easy and intuitive. The weblog was
presented within a regular meeting together with a brief
introduction of the basic functions. The only case in which
training was provided was the wiki at Autohaus Lietz, which was
introduced to the team members by the head of the IT department.
A single training session for the members of the IT department
was sufficient to provide them with the necessary skills for
managing their tasks within the wiki.
Table 4. Accompanying Measures
Accompanying Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller
Measures Lietz
Promotion 5
Training 5
Online support 5 5 5
Support team 5 5 5 5
Key users 5 5
The overview in Table 4 shows that the existence of online
support and especially the availability of a support team as well as
key users had a favorable effect. These results indicate that the
availability of people promoting and also assisting in using the
system is more appreciated by the employees than organized
training sessions.
When looking at how motivated people are to use social software
in their daily work, the acceptance of the users is a crucial
{ indicator. The system can be well accepted right from the
beginning, not accepted at all, or accepted only after further
activities have been undertaken like organizational changes,
support activities or updates and modifications of the software.
Another indicator is the motive of users for using the application
frequently. A powerful reason can be that it simply is necessary
and crucial to fulfill ones duties or in case the social software
has replaced another system that the previous system is not
available any more. A similar aspect is called new ways of
information dissemination (Table 6), which means that required
information is now only provided with the help of social software.
Other reasons for using a social software application include the
usability of the tool itself and the amount, the quality and the
topicality of the content available. The performance indicator
networking in Table 6 refers to getting to know other employees,
team members or experts by using the system. The indicator
social presence/reputation denotes that the contributions and
achievements of team members become visible companywide.
4.3.1 User Acceptance
All social software applications under investigation were accepted
by the users. However, some cases clearly showed that user
acceptance rates turned out to be satisfactory only after additional
activities had been taken. Since only successful implementations
of social software in SMEs were documented, none of the case
studies ended up with a lack of user acceptance.
The acceptance of the wiki for task management at Autohaus
Lietz was high from the beginning, as well as the new task
management system at Factline. Many employees at Greentube
used the Greenwiki right from the beginning, even though the
number of users with passive access was much higher than the
users that contributed actively to the wiki. The wiki at
Winterheller was well accepted by all team members. Even their
clients used the wiki-based documentation right from the start.
Some members of the project team at CSR had trouble using the Another important motive for frequent and regular use of social
platform at the beginning. However, they got personal support software applications is based on the fact that social software is
from the project leader and thus the platform became well easy to use, there are no access barriers, and the content provided
accepted, too. The weblog at IQ mobile was not well accepted at is relevant and up-to-date. This is evident especially in the cases
first as just a few employees were allowed to contribute to the at Factline, Greentube, and IQ mobile. The task tagging system at
weblog. After an organizational relaunch, where one person was Factline was well accepted and soon used by all employees as the
established to be responsible for the administration and publishing previous solution had major deficiencies. Employees at Greentube
of the content and all employees were allowed to contribute, the were motivated to use the Greenwiki because it provided up-to-
weblog was frequently used. Acceptance rates rose with the date information on a large variety of topics and easy access
amount and topicality of the content. without barriers. After the organizational relaunch, the employees
at IQ mobile were motivated to use the weblog as there were no
Table 5. User Acceptance access barriers and everybody could contribute easily. Even
User Acceptance Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller incomplete contributions could be sent to the person in charge of
Lietz
the weblog who completed and posted the articles. Another
From the
beginning { { motivating aspect for the employees at IQ mobile was reputation.
After further Sales people now report on the conclusions of contracts knowing
activities { { { { that the article will be read by most colleagues.

In the majority of the cases (four out of six) the social software Table 6. Motivation
applications were well accepted by the users right from the Motivation Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller
Lietz
beginning. One reason for the acceptance is probably that in all
Necessary for
cases, several accompanying measures were taken to support the the job 5 5 5
launch of the new system, team members were used to social Easy, intuitive
software and lastly, they had full and open access to content. use 5 5 5
However, after eliminating initial barriers (e.g. lack of social No access
5 5
barriers
software experience at CSR, limited access and limited content at
IQ mobile) users are willing to accept these new tools and Relevant content 5 5 5 5 5
appreciate working with them. If there are troubles and low rates Up-to-date
5 5 5 5
content
of acceptance right from the beginning, enterprises should analyze Amount of
usage behavior and identify barriers as soon as possible. As these content 5 5
two cases show, identifying the problem and taking Working faster 5 5 5 5
accompanying measures will often lead to success. Working easier 5 5 5 5
Central
4.3.2 Motivation information 5 5 5 5
access
In the cases of the research center CSR, Autohaus Lietz, and
New ways of
Winterheller, the team members were forced to use the social information 5 5 5 5
software application to be able to perform their daily business. In dissemination

the latter two cases, the social software application replaced
another system. The team members of the IT department of
Autohaus Lietz had to use the new application as this was the
only access point to the tasks they had to carry out. The wiki also
served as a repository for descriptions of processes and team
members could learn how to fulfill a task without having to ask
colleagues.
The project platform based on Ning for the research project at
CSR provided a much better overview of the relevant information
than the previously tested intranet solutions. A special
requirement of CSR was that all written communication
(including email) had to be accomplished by means of the
platform. Thus, it provided a central archive of all relevant
communication threads for all team members and the network of
partner organizations was also maintained with the help of the
social network service.
The most striking motivation factors of software developers at
Winterheller to use the wiki for documentation were significant
relief and improvements in the process of creating the software
documentation. Now, they were able to create the documentation
collaboratively in a team and tasks could be shared. Therefore,
writing was much easier, much faster and the output always up-
to-date, with less effort. Besides, a new kind of creation process
was set up and had to be followed.
Networking 5
Social presence /
reputation 5
The most important motivating factors that were encountered in
the investigated SMEs (Table 6) are content related motivation
(e.g. relevant/significant content, high quality, topicality), the
availability of a new way of information dissemination and
most importantly an increase in efficiency in daily work. The
high number of entries concerning working procedures (working
easier/faster, central information access, new ways of information
dissemination) in the cross-case analysis (Table 6) suggest that
social software applications are likely to be well accepted by the
employees if the systems efficiently support the daily work and
provide a clear benefit for the users. Therefore, social software
implementations have to be easy and intuitive to use without
access barriers, but most importantly, they have to provide a
sufficient amount of relevant and up-to-date content.
4.4 Success Factors
Several authors address the topic of success factors of
implementing social software in (large-scale) enterprises [6][20].
Our cross-case analysis of case studies conducted in SMEs
showed that the success factors for the social software
applications are promoters and management support. Promoters
were crucial for success of the task management wiki at Autohaus and the qualitative content analysis that was performed, allows for
Lietz. It was initiated by the head of the IT department, who also some deductions to social media utilization for team collaboration
assigned the tasks. Even though the wiki was easy to use, the in SMEs. According to Eisenhardt [23], we can use these results
training session definitely contributed to the success of the wiki, to shape new hypotheses.
too. Management support was crucial for the success of the wiki
First of all, in the six analyzed cases, top-down adoption
at Winterheller. Nevertheless, the ideas for further development of
strategies based on an initiative by management dominated. In
the wiki originated bottom-up from the team members. Another
comparison to large-scale enterprises where bottom-up adoption is
success factor mentioned in the Winterheller case and at IQ
quite common in SMEs, the leading role of top management
mobile was the availability of a contact person for assistance right
influences social media initiatives much stronger. This leads to
from the beginning. At IQ mobile, the allocation of a person in
the hypothesis that in SMEs top-down adoption is much more
charge, responsible for administration and keeping the content up-
frequently used than in large-scale enterprises.
to-date including in-depth support, in the course of an
organizational relaunch achieved sustained success. In order to encourage the utilization of the new tools, most
enterprises took two accompanying measures (Table 4). The
Personal support for users contributed to the success of the project
importance of support, especially personal support, is emphasized
platform at CSR, as well as the task tagging system at Factline. At
by our findings on the major success factors (Table 7). Thus, we
CSR, the project leader introduced the system to all team
can pose the hypothesis that social media initiatives for team
members and provided support. The new task tagging system at
collaboration will achieve sustained success if enterprises provide
Factline was introduced personally to every team member by the
key users and personal assistance to support users.
developer, who also provided support for using the new system.
The cross-case analysis identified two major success factors:
Greentube encountered two major success factors when starting
support of the social media activities by the companys
and running their corporate Greenwiki: simplicity and a broad
management as well as technical and operational support for users
mix of content of high relevance. Simplicity, ease of use and
as mentioned above. Again, as indicated by the predominance of
barrier-free access have been mentioned in several case studies,
top-down adoption in SMEs, the importance of management
but at Greentube simplicity is primarily responsible for success.
support as a primary success factor is obviously determined by
Table 7. Success Factors the leading role of top management, which is much more
Success factors Autohaus CSR Factline Greentube IQ mobile Winterheller
dominant in an SME than in a LE. Future work on this topic
Lietz might investigate whether the influence of management support
Promoters 5 on the success of social media initiatives is higher in SMEs than
Management in LEs.
support 5 5 5 5
Besides these success factors, social media implementations are
Simplicity 5
shaped by the motivation of the users to use the new tool. The
Promotion 5 most important motivating factors that we found in SMEs are
Training 5 associated with improvements in working procedures and
Support 5 5 5 5 processes, i.e. social media assist people to work more efficiently
User integration in their daily business. Team members in SMEs are highly
motivated to use social media if these applications provide a
significant amount of relevant and up-to-date content of high
The results in Table 7 indicate that the most important success
quality. Thus, especially in top-down initiatives like in SMEs,
factors for SMEs are support of the social media activities by
enterprises have to undertake activities that encourage users to
management and technical support for users. As the number of
augment the content, which in turn motivates other users to take
entries concerning technical support in Table 7 as well as the most
an active part. It is a precondition that the social media
important accompanying measures in Section 4.2.2 show,
application is easy to use and there are no access barriers.
accompanying personal support is highly appreciated by users and
increases chances of success significantly. Support of an initiative
by management is always important, but Table 7 clearly indicates 6. CONCLUSIONS
that due to the management-centric behavior of SMEs (see also Case-study research provides an appropriate method to analyze
Section 4.2.1) and the social and community-related complex phenomena regarding social media utilization in SMEs,
characteristic of social media, support by the top-level such as adoption strategies, user motivation, acceptance, and
management of an SME is vitally important. Interestingly, success factors. Since research on social media utilization is
another success factor commonly found in social media dominated by applications in large-scale enterprises, our work
initiatives, namely user integration, was not mentioned in any of focuses on small or medium-sized enterprises. High-quality case
the investigated case studies. studies on the application of social software for team
collaboration in SMEs are rare, and thus we chose a research
approach based on a qualitative content analysis applied to high-
5. RESULTS quality descriptive case studies following a standardized structure.
The cross-case analysis of six case studies conducted in European
Based on the findings of the cross-case analysis, we are able to
SMEs identified several indicators and influencing factors
form new hypotheses and could prove them for example in a
representing the specific situation of SMEs in the context of team
large-N cross-case analysis by investigating a much bigger set of
collaboration. The analyzed cases are quite heterogeneous in
case studies.
company size, applied social software tool, and problem statement
to be solved. However, the standardized structure of case studies
Some of our results on small or medium-sized enterprises differ
from what we might have expected, based on findings in large-
scale enterprise-oriented case studies. Therefore, further research
will investigate the differences concerning the indicators and
influencing factors determined for SMEs and corresponding
factors determined for large-scale enterprises.
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was funded by FFG / sterreichische Forschungs-
frderungsgesellschaft mbH in grant No. 821111 "eCollaboration
2.0: Collaboration Tools und Social Media fr Teamarbeit in
KMUs".
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