Innovation resistance and strategic implications of enterprise social media websites in Taiwan through knowledge sharing perspective

•Social media is a new connection between customer feedback and brand modeling.•The prosperity of social media is built on users' knowledge sharing behavior.•This study employs innovation resistance theory and summarizes users' barriers.•The strategic recommendations to overcome those barriers are proposed.

Virtual communities consist of social media users whose relationships are strengthened through information and knowledge transfers, as well as interactions among members. A new connection between customer feedback and brand modeling has been formed through social media. Therefore, this research aims to enhance effective management of enterprise social media platforms, as the key to prosperity in social media is built on the knowledge sharing behavior of users. The study employs the theory of innovation resistance and summarizes 27 factors of barriers encountered by users during the knowledge sharing process in enterprise social media. These factors are further categorized into seven dimensions of resistance, such as usage barriers, value barriers, physical risks, trust risks, security belief barriers, mutual benefit belief barriers, and image barriers. The validity of the scales is confirmed by using the corroboration process of factor analysis. The strategic implications of the barriers are explored, and recommendations to overcome those barriers are proposed as part of management of enterprise social media sites.