Enterprise 2.0 Adoption in SMEs: Application Areas, Motivation, Success Factors, and Barriers

Social software platforms provide an efficient means to support team collaboration and knowledge management within the enterprise. Especially small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) may benefit from easy to use, light-weight enterprise 2.0 applications. A research approach is presented that is based on a cross-case analysis of case studies each of them representing an implementation of an emergent social platform within an organisation. The case studies are analysed by applying a structured approach to a qualitative content analysis. We determine which adoption strategies organisations use and identify applications areas and motivation factors of social software utilisation. Critical issues for the success of enterprise 2.0 initiatives like barriers and success factors are derived to provide organisations with deeper insight when starting their own enterprise 2.0 implementation.