Acceptance of Social Media by Organizational Users - Testing the Impact of System Design Features

As more business-to-business organizations consider using social media to attract customers, the acceptance of social media technology among employees becomes crucial. We assume particular factors to matter for organizational users as compared to private users. Study 1 which is based on 46 in-depth interviews explores six system design features that are critical for social media usage among organizations. We document the role of (1) information sharing, (2) internal communication, (3) customer feedback and dialogue, (4) content control, (5) internal data security, and (6) system integrity concerns in social media technology assessments. We test the developed conceptual model in study 2 using survey data from 126 organizations. Results indicate that system design features show positive and negative effects on usefulness and ease of use. We find strong negative responses of system design features on anxiety associated with social media usage and perception of emotional conviction.