Adoption and Use of Corporate Wikis in German Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

In recent years, corporate wikis have been increasingly adopted in enterprises. However, little research is devoted to the adoption and use of wikis in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are of high social and economic importance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the usage of enterprise wikis in SMEs and potential concerns that may hinder the diffusion of wikis in SMEs as well as other reasons for their reluctance to adopt wikis by conducting a survey of German SMEs. Findings indicate that a majority of SMEs do not intend to adopt wikis in their organization for various reasons. However, firms that have already introduced wikis seem to clearly benefit despite a number of concerns that might have a negative impact on the use and diffusion of wikis. Based on our results, we derive several implications for SMEs, in particular with respect to how to overcome these obstacles to adoption and diffusion of wikis.