Enterprise social networks for the benefit of ambidextrous organisation? The case of a major oil company

International audienceIn recent years, many companies have endeavoured to set up their own enterprise social networks. In this note, we will explore one possible use of such networks, namely implementing them to the benefit of "distributed" and "participatory" breakthrough innovation processes. The authors were able to observe an "innovation challenge" experiment (entirely online) within Technip, a major oil company. The results underscore the following points: the social network opens up a "space" that provides a playing field for innovative profiles which the mechanism also serves to identify; the challenge struggled to appeal to anyone other than a hard core of enthusiasts, but did manage to reach a wider audience of silent, passive "readers", which infers that the effects of this type of mechanism are not limited to active participation; managers' lack of time and management involvement represented a major hindrance to widening this challenge beyond the "hard core"; lastly, it required an intensive, multifaceted steering effort