Two Paths to Adoption : Cognitive and Affective Drivers of Social Media Adoption in Public Administration

Various studies have explored the impact of new media on the interaction of governments and their citizenry (e-government) or the engagement of citizens in questions of governance (e-governance). Social media can make participation in public governance logistically feasible by providing access to a wide range of information as well as online conversations. More and more public administrations strive to employ social media for citizen interaction. Yet, little is known about the necessary preconditions of professional social media use in public administration.
In this study, we focus on public administration employees' stance towards social media as one important element in the successful implementation of social media projects. Applying insights from technology acceptance research and based on a quantitative survey among the employees of a German state administration, we explore individual-level antecedents of social media use intentions. We distinguish two routes of adoption - a cognitive and an affective one - and find that the affective route is more pronounced. This points to the hedonic status of social media as an information technology and coincides with information systems previous literature.