Title: Social media for web-communities of female entrepreneurs: a PRISMA-compliant exploration

Authors: Tareq Rasul; Md. Rakibul Hoque; Md. Shamsul Arefin

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Australian Institute of Business, Australia ' Department of Management Information Systems, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh ' Department of Management Studies, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Bangladesh

Abstract: Pursuing businesses through social media platforms has become an interesting trend for female entrepreneurs in the last few years and in modern society. It appears as a beneficial online tool to promote new entrepreneurial ideas and a key factor for innovation, poverty reduction, employment, and economic growth in many global rising economies, as well as a way of life among disadvantaged families. The aim of this study is to articulate the role of web-communities for closing the current gaps in knowledge regarding the effects of social media on female entrepreneurs and how the utilisation of such a platform assists in promoting their economic welfare and their social well-being. We have adopted an extensive key search strategy on different databases, including Scopus, EBSCO Academic Search Premier and ProQuest. Our findings confirm that social media has a direct contribution to empowering females in many countries to pursue business through such platforms. Our review further provides practical implementations and future recommendations as regards to the current existing gaps in knowledge and supports conducing systematic research leading to more extensive inclusion of social media studies and their relation to female empowerment as entrepreneurs.

Keywords: social media; web-based communities; social capital; female entrepreneurs; female empowerment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2020.111379

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2020 Vol.16 No.4, pp.396 - 409

Received: 29 Jan 2020
Accepted: 23 Mar 2020
Published online: 23 Nov 2020 *

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