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An Empirical Analysis on Social Capital and Enterprise 2.0 Participation in a Research Institute

Ferron Michela, Frassoni Marco, Massa Paolo, Napolitano Maurizio, Setti Davide

SoNet project - Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) - Trento, Italyhttp://sonet.fbk.eu

Sunbelt INSNA conference - Riva del Garda, Italy July 2nd, 2010

Research question

Any relation between (1) usage of internal web Enterprise2.0 platform and (2) individual social capital ?

Outline

1) Definitions and research setting: Enterprise2.0 platform (Taolin) and enterprise (FBK)

2) Social capital assessment methodology

3) Regression analysis results

Enterprise2.0

Web2.0 and Social Network Sites inside Organizations = Enterprise2.0

Companies started deploying Enterprise2.0 platforms.Are these successful in making employees collaborate, share knowledge, have fun?

Lots of work on Web2.0 and SNSs but few empirical studies about Enterprise2.0 platforms

Deployed at http://desktop.fbk.eu since June 2008.

Social bar (left): profile view

Widgets (center): news aggregator, a map of buildings and office locations, an internal chat, a bullettin board, lists of colleagues and new people joining FBK, etc...

Open source, download at http://taolin.fbk.eu

The Enterprise2.0 platform: taolin.fbk.eu

desktop.fbk.eu interface is basically divided in two main regions: a social bar on the left, containing users' profile and a timeline, and a central region composed with a dashboard, customizable by adding micro-applications called widgets.

Example of widgets are working tools such as an event scheduler or a note taker, several news aggregator, a map of buildings and office locations, an internal chat, a bullettin board, lists of colleagues and new people joining FBK, etc...

FBK is research institute located in Trentino, northern part of Italy.350+ researchers and ~200 other employees

Information Technology, Materials and Microsystems, Italo-Germanic studies, Religious Science

lots of research units, on different research fields --> need for knowledge sharing, collaboration and cross-fertilization

In 2009: 200 Champions (employees enabled) out of 676

The Enterprise: FBK

Picture under Creative Commons. By technicolorcavalry http://www.flickr.com/photos/technicolorcavalry/255236491/sizes/l/

Social Capital

Social capital [7] refers to the set of resources embedded in a social network.Individual Social Capital ~ opportunities a specific individual may have simply by being part of a web of social ties.

Bonding social capital generally refers to strong ties (relationships with family members, close friends, partners)Bridging social capital is built on a large number of weak ties (ability of going over a person's close group to reach other groups members ability)

Research question

Any relation between (1) usage of internal web Enterprise2.0 platform and (2) individual social capital ?

Steinfield et al. [3] studied the relationships between social capital of users of an internal SNS within IBM.

Data Collection

Online web survey14 statements about perceived social capital, most adapted from (Steinfield et al.)

(champions only) 10 additional items,about platform usage

response rate: 54% of all the sent invitations (33% were champions and 67% were not)

Demographic dataage, gender, number of years since the first contract with FBK was signed, and type of job

Platform usage data (from logs)(champions only) number of days since the champion joined desktop.fbk.eu, logins in last 30 days, number of profile views and chat widget and Feeback provider widget usage

When? 1st December 2009Anonymized dataset released at http://sonetlab.fbk.eu/datasets/

Data Collection: Online web survey

14 statements, about perceived social capitalIf I need an emergency loan of 300 Euros, there is someone at FBK I could ask to loan it to me (1-5)

I feel part of the FBK family (1-5)

I always have new people to talk to at FBK (1-5)

(champions only) 10 additional items, about platform usageI am proud to tell people I use desktop.fbk.eu

I use desktop.fbk.eu to get to know people I would not otherwise not meet at FBK

Using desktop.fbk.eu, I found out about interests of people I already knew

Methodology

1) Factor analysis on social capital statements

2) Regression analysis: correlation between social capital measures and other measures

Factor analysis on social capital statement agreements

Five factors of social capital emerged: item in factor if correlation coefficient > 0.45

(1) Bonding social capitalBridging social capital: (2) access to new people, (3) citizenship, (4) desire of networking, (5) knowledge of colleagues

Statements about social capital and explorative factor analysis. Bonding social capitalAccess to new people Citizen-ship Desire of net-working Know-ledge of collea-gues

If I need an emergency loan of 300 Euros there is someone at FBK I could ask to loan it to me 0.55 0.02 0.06 0-0.01

When I feel lonely, there are several people at FBK I can talk to 0.59 0.41 -0.01 0.17 0.08

If I need to borrow money for the coffee machine, I know someone at FBK who would loan me a few Euros 0.62 0.01 0.11 -0.02 0.05

I know my work unit well on a personal level 0.46 0.08 0.04 0.03 0.19

When I have a problem at work, there are several people at FBK I know I can call on for help 0.69 0.25 0.2 0.05 -0.01

I always have new people to talk to at FBK 0.17 0.76 0.18 0.02 0.06

At FBK, I meet new people all the time 0.17 0.78 0.27 0.12 0.1

I am willing to spend time outside of my normal work responsibilities to contribute to FBK 0.07 0.22 0.8 0.1 0.01

I feel part of the FBK family *0.23 0.22 0.59 0.25 0.09

I am willing to contribute some of my personal time to mentor new FBK employees 0.18 0.08 0.46 0.35 0.01

I am interested to know the personal interests of my colleagues *0.07 0.01 0.16 0.65 0.06

If available, I would use an internal web tool where FBK colleagues can describe themselves and interact *-0.1 0.1 0.13 0.8 -0.02

I know what people do outside of my work unit *0.18 0.14 0.05 0.05 0.97

If I need it, I can ask for expertise from someone outside of my FBK unit 0.43 0.27 0.24 -0.06 0.18

Platform Usage Factors

Statements about platform usage (champions only) grouped into 3 dimensions:1) Intensity of site use2) Use site to connect with new people3) Use site to connect with existing contacts

Measures of site usage by desktop.fbk.eu champions.Intensity of site use (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.851)MeanStandard Deviation

I am proud to tell people I use desktop.fbk.eu 2.83 1.24

desktop.fbk.eu has become part of my workday routine 2.15 0.9

I feel out of touch when I havent logged into desktop.fbk.eu in a while 1.68 0.82

I would be sorry if desktop.fbk.eu were shut down 3.48 1.16

I feel part of the desktop.fbk.eu community2.35 1.17

Use site to connect with new people (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.753)MeanStandard Deviation

I use desktop.fbk.eu to get to know people I would otherwise not meet at FBK 2.21 1.14

I use desktop.fbk.eu to find people who know something about a particular topic 2.03 1.07

I use desktop.fbk.eu to find people with similar interests to me 1.97 0.97

Use site to connect with existing contacts (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.688) MeanStandard Deviation

Using desktop.fbk.eu I found out about interests of people I already knew *2.19 1.14

I use desktop.fbk.eu to communicate with colleagues in my work unit1.50.8

Regression analysis

Correlations between

Independent variable: 5 social capital factors

Dependent variables: * (champions) self-reported platform usage (from survey)* (champions) real platform usage (from logs) * demographic data (age, ...)

Analysis and Results

being a champion positively correlated with 4 social capital dimensions. desire of networking and access to new people (p