The adoption of corporate social networks : a technology to support strategic scanning ?

To preserve its stability and ensure a strong market position, an organization should be able to anticipate upcoming changes. The concept of scanning the environment for valuable information and indicative signals that allow an organization to predict a potential future event is termed “strategic scanning”. Strategic scanning is still considered a hard task to put in place. One of the reasons to explain this difficulty is the absence of a supporting tool which is also identified as a factor that can lead to the failure of the implementation and sustainability of strategic scanning.The development of social networks sites (SNS) proved to be extremely popular in the personal sphere, and started raising interest in the scientific community as well as in organizations.Growing awareness of the added value of SNS in organizations lead to the creation of numerous corporate social networks (CSN) technology that has transformed the way employees work and interact.On one hand, strategic scanning still lacks an “information management supporting tool”. On the other hand, CSN technology are widely spread ways to communicate, collaborate and share information. This makes CSN technology a potential candidate to support strategic scanning.The aim of our study is to investigate the adoption of CSN technology as a supporting IS for strategic process. To do so we ask 3 sub-questions:1-what is the fit between CSN technology and strategic scanning process? To answer this, we construct a theoretical framework by addressing the functionalities required to support a strategic scanning process, and addressing the functionalities offered by CSN technology.Our results show the existence of both a potential fit and misfit between CSN functionalities and strategic scanning process.Based on this observation, we attempt to study the reasons behind the adoption of CSN technology to support strategic scanning process.Hence, we address the determinants of CSN technology adoption in two different contexts of use -which is the aim of the two following sub-question.2-what are the determinants of CSN technology adoption (independently of its managerial context of use)? Adoption is the process of developing, implementing and having the will to make full use of the technology.Despite numerous studies attempting to understand technology adoption, existing theories and most of the models lack a holistic view and reflect a fragmented image.Thus, to answer the second sub-question, we draw a theoretical framework that consists of determinants of technology adoption and determinants of SNS and CSN technology adoption identified in the literature.Based on this theoretical framework, we identify 15 determinants that might influence the adoption of CSN technology independently of its managerial context of use.3-what are the determinants of CSN technology adoption to support strategic scanning process? To answer this, we split the list of 15 determinants previously identified into 2 groups: 1) determinants of CSN technology adoption to support strategic scanning process and 2) determinants of CSN technology adoption to support other business processes.Comparing these 2 groups allow us to identify determinants of CSN adoption to support strategic scanning process that do not emerge when addressing the adoption of CSN to support other business processes.We identified 15 determinants that might influence the adoption of CSN technology to support strategic scanning process. Importantly, among these determinants, only 5 determinants are reported in the case of CSN technology adoption to support strategic scanning process.Based on all the above, our work reveals that CSN technology can be a supporting tool for strategic scanning process in some contexts. Further, our study allows us to propose recommendations that might help organizations to adopt CSN technology as a supporting tool for strategic scanning process.