Social Media and Social Entrepreneurship

Theoretical Context: Social Media And Social Entrepreneurship

Social connection is considered a fundamental component in terms of the psychology of communities (Laroche et al., 2012). The evolution of technology from telegraph, radio and telephone to the computer and other modern devices has made it easier and faster for people to maintain interactions with each other. In an era of rapid technological development and ubiquitous digital technologies, the use of social media is possibly the most notable contribution in the field of networked society (Vodanovich et al., 2010; Harris, Rae & Misner, 2012). Recent studies demonstrate that around the globe there are now over one billion people that use social media for different purposes (Karikari et al., 2017; Anderson et al., 2016). This has revolutionised the process of obtaining information and this has in turn created increased online brand assurance amongst customers (Hammedi et al., 2015; Pagani and Malacarne, 2017; Brodie et al., 2013; Chang et al., 2015; Kim, 2016; Kumar et al., 2016).

Social media is comparatively a recent phenomenon facilitated by increasing global access to the internet. This has given rise to the concept of the so-called “Networked Society” (Castells 2003). The origins of social media interacting can be traced to the advent of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) in 1978, where users could log in to share software and information as well as to send messages and post to public communication panels. At the same time, because of the increasing interest and availability of home computers, social media became increasingly familiar to users (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). More importantly, this BBS is considered as a predecessor of the World Wide Web.