Motivations to use multifunctional public goods in organizations: using agent-based modeling to explore differential uses of enterprise social media

This work conceptualizes enterprise social media (ESM) as a multifunctional public good that both supports communication that connects users directly and allows users to contribute or access communal information. We show how differing motivations to use an ESM—connective or communal goals—interact with individuals’ perceptions of activity on a platform, and the consequences this has for individual participation decisions and the viability of the digital space. We begin with a case study of the adoption of an ESM platform within a single organization. We then apply findings from this case study, combined with broader theories of technology adoption, to create agent-based simulations. We show that the connective and communal aspects of an ESM complement each other and can spur adoption; we also identify the importance of information decay as a variable influencing collective adoption. We end with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our results.