BENEFIT-DRIVEN PARTICIPATION IN OPEN ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: THE CASE OF THE SAP COMMUNITY NETWORK

Organizations are creating social media platforms at the boundary of their company, bringing together interested individuals from internal and external sources for communication, collaboration, information exchange and content creation. This paper explores the participation behaviors that take place in such open organizational environments in order to identify the sources of benefit that exist in terms of business and work related activities. The focus on the emerging benefits arises from the fact that use of such tools and participation in such platforms is broadly based on a voluntary decision to join and thus adoption of Web 2.0 practices involves acknowledgement of subsequent benefits by potential users. The case of the SAP Community Network provided a rich context of behaviors and led to the finding that participation and active contribution is bound by the benefits people gain. Such benefits can be broadly understood in the extent of usefulness and the level of interest individuals hold for the content and the organizational ecosystem. The significance people place on these benefits indicates that the working environment is no longer confined within a single organizational environment and that subsequently affects individuals, organizations and communities.