Understanding the relationship between enterprise social media user adaptation, post-adoption use and employee performance

Existing research suggests that the benefits of information technology (IT) are determined by post-adoption usage behaviours that embed IT deeply and comprehensively into their working systems. However, the enterprise social media (ESM) literature has lagged in exploring the post-adoption use behaviour. This study draws on the coping theory to explore how various adaptation behaviours of information system users influence ESM post-adoption use (routinisation and infusion), and the effects of different post-adoption use behaviours on two dimensions of individual-level outcomes: routine performance and innovation performance. Using structural equation modelling on 295 sample data, the results show that: (1) User adaptation is the antecedent that shapes the post-adoption ESM use, and different user adaptation behaviours have different effects on routinisation and infusion. (2) ESM use contributes to employee performance, and the routinisation of using ESM, moreover, has a greater impact on routine performance, while infusion has a greater impact on innovation performance. (3) ESM self-efficacy negatively moderates the relationship between user adaptation and routinisation. Our findings provide instrumental insights into how employees can develop appropriate ESM usage behaviour to support their job performance.