“who Is Key...?” – Value Adding Users in Enterprise Social Networks

Whereas the use of Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) is a pervasive topic in research and practice, both parties are still struggling to come to a better understanding of the role and impact of ESN in and on knowledge-intensive corporate work. As a part of this phenomenon, employees who communicate their knowledge in ESN helping other users to do their daily work play a decisive role. We need to come to a better understanding of the role and behaviour of such value adding users. This is a prerequisite, for example, for understanding knowledge support hubs or for enabling more effective internal information and knowledge sharing. Against this background, we investigate the structural characteristics of value adding users in ESN using qualitative text analysis and Social Network Analysis. Based on a large scale dataset of a global consulting company using the ESN Yammer.com we analyse the social relationships of value adding users. We confirm their significant position and draw conclusions for research and practice.