Presenting a comprehensive framework of effective factors, behavior and consequences of using enterprise social networks

The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors affecting the use of enterprise social networks, the types of usage behavior and the consequences of using these networks.

This is a descriptive study. The qualitative inquiries of previous researches in the social networking enterprise had been investigated by means of  meta-synthesis. A total of 470 found source of meta-synthesis process, 30 papers were consistent with accepted criteria.

As a result of the combination of the findings, 52 codes and 10 main concepts (individual, organizational, social, technical factors and others related to the task, active use and passive use, consequences for the individual level, group level and organizational level) were identified. In conclusion, three categories were identified:  factors affecting use, usage behavior and consequences of use that the concepts of individual, organizational, social, technical, and others related to the task as factors affecting use, as well as the concepts of active use and passive use in the category of behavioral usage were classified. In addition, individual, group and organizational level were also classified as concepts related to the significances of use category.  Among the three categories, the category of factors influencing use has a greater share of the subject, and consequences categories and its concepts had less attention than the other two categories in preceding researches.

Organizations could employ  the results of this study to encourage more employees to use enterprise social networks and thus realize the significances.