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Entrepreneurs of Social Media : How Social Media Influencers differ from other Social Media Users

Background:  Over the years, traditional entrepreneurs started businesses due to either pull or push factors within their environments. Research has been carried out in profiling different types of entrepreneurs and their characteristics. The social media influencers are new forms of entrepreneurs who recently appeared due to changes in the technological environments. The existence of social media platforms has enhanced the possibility of entrepreneurial activities online. The platforms are available for everyone, but some have more entrepreneurial orientation or characteristics than others.  Purpose: The aim of this research is to measure the entrepreneurial orientation and the characteristics of social media users, compare social media influencers with other social media users, to determine if differences exist. Methods:       This research uses the Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation scale (Bolton & Lane, 2012) and the Individual Personality Traits measuring scale (Al Mamun, Bin Yusoff, & Ibrahim, 2018). This is a deductive study, testing the above-mentioned theories on social media users, and a quantitative study aided using data collected from online survey. Conclusion:   The results of this study show that Social Media Influencer have higher entrepreneurial traits than non-Social Media Influencers.  The result also supports the three-factor structure and satisfactory reliability of the IEO scales and subscales. Subsequently, I found out that non-SMIs do create online contents and carry out entrepreneurial activities online too.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-45665
Date January 2019
CreatorsAdenola, Janet Temitope
PublisherInternationella Handelshögskolan, Jönköping University, IHH, Företagsekonomi, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Jönköping University, IHH, Centre for Family Entrepreneurship and Ownership (CeFEO), Internationella Handelshögskolan, Jönköping University, IHH, Media, Management and Transformation Centre (MMTC)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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