Content Attractiveness in Enterprise Social Networks

Users of Enterprise Social Network Sites (ESNS) consume ESNS content by means of online social streams. They do so, to seek or share information, documents or contact information relevant for their tasks at work. Further, they aim to manage their online reputation and social network in the working context. Before being displayed, contents are automatically pre-selected based on information filtering algorithms and recommendations from other users. Information filtering algorithms are challenged to address the growing diversity of ESNS content, but also the needs of individual users. In this study we investigate factors influencing the attractiveness of ESNS content. Distinct knowledge about the preferences of users for different kinds of ESNS content can efficiently improve or complement established information filtering techniques, tailored to the enterprise context. We have developed our results based on a grounded theory study founded on 26 qualitative interviews with ESNS users from 14 multinational enterprises.