Getting Social: Multimodal Knowledge Transfer During Enterprise System Implementation

Knowledge acquired by end users through their social networks facilitates optimal use of a newly implemented enterprise system. Existing research has conceptualized end users as being the only actors within such networks. Knowledge ties between actors have been treated as unidimensional. The actor-network theory emphasizes the role of all actors in influencing networking outcomes; hence, this study proposes an expanded multimodal social network that includes four institutionally mandated knowledge actors: the technology champions, the help desk, the service desk, and the shared inbox. Knowledge ties are treated as bidimensional through incorporating both technical and business process knowledge. Data collected from an enterprise resource planning system implementation validated this approach; end users sourced knowledge from other end users and the institutionally mandated network actors based on contextual requirements. End user performance outcomes were significantly associated with knowledge source and knowledge dimension.