Adoption of Social Networking Technologies in the Workplace

This study empirically investigated the influence of technology acceptance model factors, social influence factors and demographic factors on the adoption of social networking technologies in the workplace. More than half of the surveyed respondents reported using instant messaging, Facebook or both at work for business-related or personal-related purposes. Results of a discriminant analysis suggest that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and subjective norm (collapsed into one construct), critical mass and gender are significant in distinguishing between adopters and non-adopters of social networking technologies. Compared to nonadopters, adopters perceived social networking to be more useful, easier to use and are more influenced by others.