Can Social Media Be a Key Driver to Becoming an Entrepreneur?

Abstract

AbstractSocial media have in recent years been considered crucial to entrepreneurial activity. There are, however, different ways of using them. Social media can be used from a professional or personal perspective to interact or influence by generating networks of contacts. Users freely share their opinions, desires, and concerns on the networks, thus contacting and interacting with influential people or with their own interest groups. Digitalization has given social media particular significance, but it is not clear that they are key motivating factors for entrepreneurial drive. Hence, through a survey conducted in organizations in the Community of Madrid, we have analyzed various factors such as the context and the intention to use social media and their influence on the decision to be an entrepreneur or engage in entrepreneurial activities. We used the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methodology, which allows us to provide reliability in the results without large samples. The findings suggest that social networks are dynamic and highly relevant tools today, with the ability to facilitate meaningful connections. Thus, while social media are influential and worthy of consideration, they are not the primary catalyst for entrepreneurial initiatives. Consequently, much of the information and knowledge generated in this area over the years is assumed to be normal and not particularly relevant to being an entrepreneur.