Enterprise Social Software Platforms and Team Improvisation

ABSTRACT

Enterprise social software platforms (ESSPs) have emerged as an important infrastructure that enables teams to perform in the turbulent business environment. The current study adds to the scanty literature on ESSP by revealing and confirming the underlying mechanisms through which ESSP contributes to a team’s ability to improvise. By surveying current ESSP users, we find that ESSP exercises its effect on team improvisation ability through team social capital as an important mediator. However, our results confirm the existence of two distinctive mediation mechanisms. First, intra-team ESSP use shapes improvisation ability through a team’s internal bonding social capital partially, whereas inter-team ESSP use contributes to improvisation ability through external bonding social capital fully. Second, intra-team (not inter-team) ESSP use casts an additional impact on improvisation ability through within-team (not outside-team) bridging social capital; however, this mediation effect exists only among teams that are equipped with a high level of absorptive capacity. Therefore, the current research sheds new lights on the ESSP and contributes to the research on information technology–assisted team improvisation. Our findings also inform practitioners in leveraging ESSP for enhancement of the improvisation ability of teams in the workplace.

KEYWORDS AND PHRASES:

• Enterprise social software platforms
• team social capital
• team improvisation
• team absorptive capacity
• social software

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants awarded by the Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Project (20NDJC102YB), National Natural Science Foundation of China (71772162), and the Contemporary Business and Trade Research Center, and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Contemporary Business and Trade Circulation System Construction of Zhejiang Gongshang University, Special Funds Project for Promoting the Level of Running Local Colleges and Universities in Zhejiang Province (Interdisciplinary Innovation Team Building of Internet and Management Change). This research is the achievement of New Key Specialized Think Tank of Zhejiang Province (Zheshang Research Institute).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yuan Sun

Yuan Sun ([email protected] or [email protected]; corresponding author) is a professor at Zhejiang Gongshang University, China. His main research interests include IT/IS usage, IT/IS innovation, enterprise social media, and electronic commerce. His work has been published in various journals, such as Information & Management, Electronic Markets, Computers in Human Behavior, Industrial Management & Data Systems, and Journal of Computer Information Systems. Dr. Sun is serving as a senior editor for Information Technology & People and an associate editor for Journal of Electronic Commerce Research and Journal of Global Information Management. He is a member of the council of the China Association for Information Systems.

Lixia Wu

Lixia Wu ([email protected]) is a Ph.D. candidate at Zhejiang Gongshang University, China. Her research interests include enterprise social media and boundary management.

Rui Chen

Rui Chen ([email protected]) is an associate professor of Information Systems and Dean’s Fellow in Management Information Systems in the Ivy College of Business at Iowa State University. His research interests include cyber-security, information privacy, social media, and emergency management.

Kuikui Lin

Kuikui Lin ([email protected]) received a master’s degree at Zhejiang Gongshang University, China. Her research interests include enterprises social software platforms, social capital, improvisation, IT capacity, and integrated enterprise group’s management control system.

Rong-An Shang

Rong-An Shang ([email protected]) is a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Soochow University, Taiwan. He received his Ph.D. from National Taiwan University. His research interests include electronic commerce, IS adoption and implementation, and computer-mediated communication. His work has been published in Information & Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Computers in Human Behavior, Internet Research, International Journal of Information Management, and other journals.