The Effect of Motives on Enterprise Social Network Usage

Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) have brought revolutionary changes to business organizations as they offer enormous potential to enhance collaboration, interaction, innovation, and efficiency. However, despite these benefits, many organizations have failed to encourage their employees to actively engage with ESNs, making their investment decisions questionable. Therefore, this study focused on examining the motivations to use ESNs. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the gratifications motivating the employees to use ESNs. Accordingly, information sharing, self-documentation, entertainment, and social interaction were identified as the gratifications driving the employees to use ESNs at work. Data were collected from 146 employees in the software industry who use ESNs at work through an online survey-based structured questionnaire, and data analysis was performed using partial least square based structural equation modeling using SmartPLS. The results revealed that amongst the four gratifications examined in this study, information sharing, self-documentation, and social interaction have positive and significant effects on ESN use. The findings of the study have both theoretical and practical implications. Because the studies examining the gratifications driving ESN use are scarce, the present study helps to fill the existing knowledge gap in this context. This is especially significant in the Sri Lankan context