Social Technologies and Informal Knowledge Sharing within and across Organizations

This doctoral dissertation is focused on both empirical and conceptual contributions relative to the roles social technologies play in informal knowledge sharing practices, both within and across organizations. Social technologies include (a) traditional social technologies (e.g., email, phone and instant messengers), (b) emerging social networking technologies commonly known as social media, such as blogs, wikis, major public social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), and (c) enterprise social networking technologies controlled by a host organization ( e.g., SocialText). The rapid uptake of social technologies, combined with growing interest in their broader social implications, raises pertinent questions about uses for knowledge sharing in organizations. The work reported in this thesis is motivated by two broad phenomena: (1) the importance of informal knowledge-sharing in organizations and (2) the rapid rise in the variety and prevalence of social technologies. The empirical basis of this research is a field study focused on the uses of social technologies by knowledge workers, specifically those in consulting firms. Building from the theoretical lenses of sociomateriality, structuration, and technological frames, the findings from this work advances our understanding of: (1) the ways social technologies are used in combination as a suite of tools, (2) the ways in which organizational norms, policies, and arrangements shape the uses of social technologies for knowledge practices, and (3) the variations in uses of social technologies by different groups of knowledge workers. The theoretical contribution of this work is to conceptualize the suite of social technologies used to support and enable knowledge workers is a more useful approach than the single-technological-tool-in-isolation approach, which is the norm in studies of computing. A second contribution of this work is to situate social technologies-in-use through incorporating complementary theoretical concepts: technology-mediated knowledge practices, social structures of organizations, and workers\u27 distinct interpretations of social technologies (technological frames). Practical implications arising from this study both inform the ways social technologies can be collectively integrated in work practices and inform the design and implementation of social technologies for accommodating different needs and preferences of knowledge workers. This research also generates insight into how organizations can craft policies that realistically regulate the use of social technologies, while empowering individual workers to optimize their knowledge sharing capacity by supporting informal engagement via social technologies

Sosiaalinen media liiketoiminta-alustojen mahdollistavana teknologiana digitaalisessa palvelumarkkinoinnissa

The business environment is developing at an increasing pace while customer-supplier networks are becoming more complex. Hence, companies crave for methods for acquiring customer intelligence in more agile and effective ways. The purpose of this research is to study how social media could facilitate a platform approach to the management of collaborative service innovation and service delivery. The underlying question stimulating the research is how the accumulated industrial and manufacturing expertise could be transformed into a service using social media platforms. Essentially, this research focuses on understanding how social media platforms could support companies in building, nurturing, and delivering customer relationships while promoting value co-creation. The research was carried out as a qualitative single-case study where a constructive research approach was employed in order to solve an explicit company case problem. Existing literature and interviews for company representatives and customers laid the foundation for the study. Our research indicates that, while social media in its simplest form may be used merely as the technology for customers, businesses, and outside organizations to transact on using various platforms, the most successful online companies appear to use intelligent learning processes relying on social media technologies to understand their customers' behaviour and needs in order to better serve them and to improve their sales. This research, therefore, suggests that social platforms can not only facilitate the sales process but also provide the means for collaborative service innovation and service delivery. This research presents a framework for co-creation on social platforms whereby the identified modes of service co-creation are illustrated.Liiketoimintaympäristöjen on havaittu kehittyvän yhä kiihtyvämmällä vauhdilla samalla kun asiakas-toimittaja-verkostot muuttuvat yhä monimutkaisemmiksi. Tämän johdosta yritykset ovat kiinnostuneita uusista menetelmistä, jotka mahdollistaisivat asiakastiedon hankkimisen tehokkaammin ja joustavammin. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus on selvittää, kuinka sosiaalinen media voisi mahdollistaa liiketoiminta-alustojen soveltamisen osana palveluinnovointia ja toimittamista. Tutkimuksen perimmäisenä kysymyksenä on, kuinka yrityksiin sitoutunut asiantuntemus olisi mahdollista muuttaa palveluksi hyödyntäen sosiaalisia liiketoiminta-alustoja. Tämä tutkimus siis keskittyy ymmärtämään, kuinka sosiaaliset liiketoiminta-alustat voisivat auttaa yrityksiä rakentamaan, ylläpitämään ja toimittamaan asiakassuhteita sekä edistämään arvon yhteistuotantoa. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena, jossa hyödynnettiin konstruktiivista lähestymistapaa ratkaistaessa käytännön yritysongelmaa. Sekä kirjallisuus että empiiriset haastattelut loivat pohjan tutkimukselle. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että sosiaalista mediaa voidaan yksinkertaisimmillaan hyödyntää pelkkänä teknologiana asiakkaiden, yritysten ja kolmansien osapuolten välisessä kommunikaatiossa, mutta kehittyneimmillään se mahdollistaa älykkäiden prosessien hyödyntämisen osana asiakastiedon hankkimista. Tutkimustulokset antavat täten viitteitä, että sosiaaliset liiketoiminta-alustat pystyvät paitsi edistämään myyntiprosessia, mutta voivat myös tarjota keinot yhteisinnovoinnille sekä palvelun yhteistuotannolle. Tutkimus esittelee sosiaalisten liiketoiminta-alustojen yhteistoimintaviitekehyksen, jossa palvelujen arvon yhteistuotannon muodot on havainnollistettu