Bridging or Bonding: Do Individuals gain Social Capital from Participation in Enterprise Social Networks?

Abstract

Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), platforms for short-message conversations, are making inroads into organizations. Naturally associated with creating social relationships, ESN provide interesting opportunities to study if and in what ways users gain social capital from ESN participation. Defined as the value of social relationships and networks, social capital is a diverse concept. Associated theories broadly fall into two camps: bridging social capital derives from an actor's network of weak ties and the ability to broker across structural network holes, bonding social from strong ties and cohesive networks. A unique data set, obtained from Deloitte Australia, allows testing relationships between different ESN structures and a relevant external success variable: employee job rating. We find evidence for bonding, but not bridging social capital. Our findings reveal ESN as tools for collaborative work, associated with bonding social capital, and as broadcasting media limiting individual information gains commonly associated with bridging social capital.

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