Knowledge

Enterprise 2.0: theoretical foundations
of social media tools influence on
knowledge sharing practices in
organizations
Master Thesis
Business Information Technology

University of Twente
School of Management and Governance
July, 2010
Supervisors
Dr. R.M. Müller, University of Twente
Dr. Klaas Sikkel, University of Twente

Iryna Gordeyeva
0206482
Irina.Gordeyeva@gmail.com

Abstract
This research deals with a question whether new Enterprise 2.0 technologies, when adopted, can bring change
to organizational communication, information and knowledge processes, and influence the barriers to
knowledge sharing. A variety of opinions are expressed, discussions, studies and conferences are initiated in
this field. However, as became clear from the initial overview, previous research is mostly focused on either
problems of tools adoption or on the peculiarities of the use of certain technologies. The objective of this
research is to construct a grounded theory that explains how adoption of Enterprise 2.0 tools (such as wikis,
blogs, microblogs, social networks, tagging and social bookmarking) address the barriers to knowledge
sharing.
To achieve the research objective several steps have been taken. Firstly, an extensive literature review has
been done. It consists of two main parts: overview of the main theories of knowledge sharing and of the stateof-the-art research on Enterprise 2.0. Managing organizational knowledge is regarded as important for
learning and innovation processes. Organizations put a lot of efforts into motivating their employees to share
knowledge, as well as into supporting this process with all kinds of Information Technologies (IT). However,
there are different obstacles to successful knowledge sharing. According to the existing research literature the
most significant barriers are lack of interpersonal trust between organizational members, costs and
complexities of sharing knowledge (described by social dilemma...