Strategies and symbolism in the adoption of organizational social networking systems Myriam Karoui a,⇑ , Aurélie Dudezert b , Dorothy E. Leidner c a Ecole Centrale Paris, France b Université de Poitiers (IAE), France c Baylor University, United States article info Article history: Received 4 November 2013 Received in revised form 5 November 2014 Accepted 12 November 2014 Available online xxxx Keywords: Social network analysis systems Social capital Symbolic capital Adoption strategies Case study abstract Because of the important role being played by social networks, many organizations are turning to the use of social network systems to help manage these social networks and the accompanying social capital. When a social networking system is implemented in an organization, it may serve as a signal to organizational actors that social capital, heretofore largely ignored and invisible, will hereafter represent an important resource for the orga- nization. As a result, individuals may consciously manipulate the system to either increase their own social capital or decrease the value of others’ social capital. In a case study of two organizations in the process of adopting an SAP-based social networking system, our research examines how groups of actors develop strategies to control the social networking system as well as the symbolic capital that emerges during the adoption of the system. Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Introduction Cross-functional, short-term, ad-hoc project teams form the backbone of modern organizational work practices. Partici- pation in various project teams provides an individual with a cornucopia of internal organizational relationships forming an informal structure often referred to as a social network. The reliance upon these social networks to accomplish work tasks has become so extensive (Cross and Parker, 2004) that official organizational charts rarely reflect the actual relationships that individuals have with others in the organization. These social networks provide individuals access to resources – other individuals and their knowledge – that might otherwise be hard to find. They also provide individuals the ability to accrue advantages such as power (Brass, 1984), leadership (Sparrowe and Liden, 1997), mobility (Boxman et al., 1991), employabil- ity (Fernandez et al., 2000), performance (Burton et al., 2010) or learning (Borgatti et al., 1998). The totality of the resources embedded in an individual’s social network constitutes the individual’s social capital (Coleman, 1988; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Not only does social capital provide value to individuals, but it has been found to be an important enabler of collective action in organizations (Lazega, 2006). Because of the important role being played by social networks, many organizations are turning to the use of social network systems to help manage these social networks and the accompanying social capital. Organizational Social Network Systems (henceforth, SNS) are designed to bring visibility to the informal relationships in an organization, to support cross- functional collaboration (Cross et al., 2002), to identify relations between individuals and to provide a medium for informal interactions unbounded by hierarchy constraints. Similar to their predecessors in the consumer world, such as Myspace and http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2014.11.003 0963-8687/Ó 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: myriam.karoui@ecp.fr (M. Karoui), ADudezert@iae.univ-poitiers.fr (A. Dudezert), Dorothy_Leidner@baylor.edu (D.E. Leidner). Journal of Strategic Information Systems xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Strategic Information Systems journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsis Please cite this article in press as: Karoui, M., et al. Strategies and symbolism in the adoption of organizational social networking systems. J. Strateg. Inform. Syst. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2014.11.003