Wiki im Wissensmanagement: Determinanten der Akzeptanz eines Web 2.0 Projektes innerhalb eines internationalen Zulieferers der Automobilindustrie

Wikis have been used increasingly as a tool for collaborative
authoring and knowledge management (KM) in recent years. One
possible application is the collective documentation of technical
knowledge and experience within a corporation or its departments.
However, just like with other new technologies, the success of
wikis depends on the intended users’ acceptance, which cannot
always be presupposed. Therefore, the present work focused on the
acceptance of introducing wiki technology in an existing corporate
knowledge management (KM) system at an international automotive
supplier enterprise. Drawing on theories of technology acceptance
(e.g. Venkatesh & Davis, 2000), KM research on virtual
communities of practice, and motivation theory, a theoretical
framework model was developed. It distinguishes individual and
organizational factors and wiki features as potential influences on
successful use of wikis in corporations. The model was used as
framework for two studies investigating users’ acceptance of a
newly introduced wiki on corporate level as well as wikis on
departmental level. A third study analyzed the wiki’s contribution
to overall corporate KM activities. The wiki had been used to build
a corporate lexicon, available for more than 120,000 employees
worldwide. Methodologically, the studies incorporated surveys among
wiki users and log file analyses. The main findings emphasize
former research results about motivation and perceived ease of use
as key influences on acceptance of new technology. However, further
evidence identified users’ expectancies as an additional important
factor. Concerning the wiki’s contribution to KM, hopes of using it
as a tool to foster generation of new knowledge were dampened, as
it was used mainly for the representation of existing knowledge.
Overall, the study was able to identify a number of factors for the
successful introduction of wikis as collaborative authoring tools
in a corporate setting.