The purpose for this paper is to explore social media marketing from
the perspective of entrepreneurial learning. The theoretical basis consists of
contributions from the fields of organisational learning and entrepreneurship.
An empirical study involving ten companies has been carried out. The
data were analysed with methods inspired by grounded theory. Categories
describing the companies’ social media presence from an entrepreneurial
learning perspective are provided. The value of using organisational learning as
a framework for social media marketing is shown. Thus, the paper presents a
novel way of studying social media activities which should contribute to the
theoretical fields of organisational learning and entrepreneurship as well as to
the understanding of social media marketing. For practitioners, the findings
provide additional knowledge that should be useful for their own social media
activities.
Geneva: InderScience Publishers, 2011. Vol. 6, no 4, p. 331-340
social media; entrepreneurship; organisational learning; marketing communication; grounded theory; relationship marketing; entrepreneurial learning; systems thinking; social networking; microblogging.