Analysis of Social Media Impact on Opportunity Recognition. A Social Networks and Entrepreneurial Alertness Mixed Approach
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development
2.1. Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition
2.2. Entrepreneurial Alertness and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition
2.3. Social Networks and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition
2.4. Social Media and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition
3. Materials and Methods
3.1. Participants and Sampling Design
3.2. Instruments
4. Analysis and Results
5. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
Entrepreneurial Alertness | |
Scanning and search (8 items) | I have frequent interactions with clients and suppliers to acquire new information |
I always pay attention for new business ideas when looking for information | |
I regularly read various publications to acquire new information | |
I browse the Internet every day | |
In my daily activities, I try to look for new business ideas | |
I am an avid information seeker | |
I am always actively looking for new information | |
I regularly seek information from various information sources | |
Association and connection (8 items) | I often see new combinations of people, materials, or products |
I often make novel connections and perceive new or emergent relationships between various pieces of information | |
I often find differences between the way I see certain situations and the way other people see them | |
I often come up with new ideas and approaches to customer problems | |
I often think “outside the box” | |
I see links between seemingly unrelated pieces of information | |
I am good at “connecting dots” | |
I often see connections between previously unconnected domains of information | |
Evaluation and judgment (8 items) | “Seeing” potential new business opportunities comes very naturally to me |
I have a special alertness or sensitivity toward profitable opportunities | |
I have a gut feeling for potential opportunities | |
I can distinguish between profitable and not-so-profitable opportunities | |
I have a good ability to sense profitable opportunities | |
I have the ability to distinguish between high-value and low-value opportunities | |
When it comes to business opportunities, I am good at filtering or blocking out insignificant information to make decisions | |
When facing multiple opportunities, I am able to select the good ones | |
Social Networks | |
Network building (4 items) | I am alert to market developments that create potential partnership opportunities |
I always encourage my business partners to introduce their peers to me | |
I always look for opportunities to have lunches or dinners with prospective business partners | |
I often invite prospective business partners to participate in various social activities | |
Network maintenance (3 items) | I can read others well and know how they are feeling in a given situation |
I know well about what others need and try to do what I can for them | |
When I have disagreements with my partners, I usually strive to be flexible accommodate to reach a mutually satisfactory compromise | |
Network coordination (4 items) | I always analyzes what I would like to achieve with others |
I know well which business partners I can trust and whom I cannot | |
I can well match my energy and resources to my different business partners | |
I have a clear mind about the interdependence among my business partners | |
Social Media | |
Social media (4 items) | I often use social media to obtain work-related information and knowledge |
I regularly use social media to maintain and strengthen communication with peers | |
I can gain lots of knowledge by using social media | |
I use social media to contact customers | |
Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition | |
Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition (8 items) | I discover entrepreneurial opportunities in my activity |
I discover previously unnoticed entrepreneurial opportunities | |
I am excited to search for unexploited entrepreneurial opportunities | |
I constantly search for solutions to product issues that build on my experience | |
I search for product related information that took the firm into existing product areas | |
I like to discover new ways of doing things | |
I prefer to find new uses for existing products | |
I am a source of innovative ideas |
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Firms’ Characteristics | % | Entrepreneurs’ Characteristics | % | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
NACE classification | NACE 5829 | 20.39% | Gender | Male | 82.77% |
NACE 6201 | 23.79% | Female | 17.23% | ||
NACE 6202 | 25.73% | Education * | ISCED 4 or less | 0.56% | |
NACE 6209 | 30.10% | ISCED 5 or 6 | 59.32% | ||
Size (no. of employees) | Micro (< 10) | 21.36% | ISCED 7 or more | 40.11% | |
Small (10–49) | 35.44% | Age | Less than 35 years old | 29.10% | |
Medium (50–249) | 43.20% | More than 35 years old | 70.90% |
Constructs | Cronbach’s α | Composite Reliability | AVE |
---|---|---|---|
Social media (SM) | 0.86 | 0.89 | 0.75 |
Entrepreneurial alertness (EA) | 0.87 | 0.89 | 0.81 |
Social networks (SN) | 0.85 | 0.88 | 0.79 |
Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition (EOR) | 0.84 | 0.86 | 0.83 |
Constructs | SM | EA | SN | EOR |
---|---|---|---|---|
SM | 0.867 | |||
EA | 0.852 | 0.902 | ||
SN | 0.846 | 0.837 | 0.886 | |
EOR | 0.854 | 0.848 | 0.852 | 0.911 |
Relation | t-Value | Path Coefficient |
---|---|---|
Age → EOR | 0.123 | −0.036 |
Gender → EOR | 0.217 | 0.012 |
Education → EOR | 0.282 | 0.027 |
EA → EOR | 1.973 * | 0.344 |
SN → EOR | 2.876 ** | 0.331 |
SM → EOR | 3.259 ** | 0.342 |
SM → EA | 316.5 *** | 0.307 |
SM → SN | 328.1 *** | 0.316 |
EA | SN | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct Effect | Indirect Effect | Total Effect | VA (%) | Direct Effect | Indirect Effect | Total Effect | VA (%) | |
SM → EOR | 0.318 | 0.315 | 0.633 | 49.76 | 0.321 | 0.308 | 0.629 | 48.96 |
Constructs | R2 | Q2 |
---|---|---|
SM | – | – |
EA | 0.826 | 0.737 |
SN | 0.809 | 0.712 |
EOR | 0.817 | 0.741 |
Mean | 0.818 | 0.730 |
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Ceptureanu, S.I.; Ceptureanu, E.G.; Cristescu, M.P.; Dhesi, G. Analysis of Social Media Impact on Opportunity Recognition. A Social Networks and Entrepreneurial Alertness Mixed Approach. Entropy 2020, 22, 343. https://doi.org/10.3390/e22030343
Ceptureanu SI, Ceptureanu EG, Cristescu MP, Dhesi G. Analysis of Social Media Impact on Opportunity Recognition. A Social Networks and Entrepreneurial Alertness Mixed Approach. Entropy. 2020; 22(3):343. https://doi.org/10.3390/e22030343
Chicago/Turabian StyleCeptureanu, Sebastian Ion, Eduard Gabriel Ceptureanu, Marian Pompiliu Cristescu, and Gurjeet Dhesi. 2020. "Analysis of Social Media Impact on Opportunity Recognition. A Social Networks and Entrepreneurial Alertness Mixed Approach" Entropy 22, no. 3: 343. https://doi.org/10.3390/e22030343