Entrepreneurial Presence on Social Media Platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Language Matters
Title: Entrepreneurial Presence on Social Media Platforms in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Language Matters (w/ Egbert Amoncio and Rajesh Ramachandran)
Abstract: Seeking causal evidence on digital platform presence in a developing environment context, we conducted a field experiment and a replication study among Zambian entrepreneurs whom we provided with a Facebook business page. To our surprise—and in contrast to our hypotheses—we found a decreasing impact on sales performance. In a post-hoc exploration, we find that while social media platforms enhance entrepreneurial opportunities, in the context of a developing environment where buyer-seller transactions are highly flexible and adaptive, and built on language-based informal arrangements, social media platforms reduce entrepreneurial performance when languages are different. The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of how and why expanding information and communication technologies may harm entrepreneurs as they try to scale in a developing environment.