A classification of social media methods of environmental scanning for entrepreneurial opportunity development

Abstract

A limited amount of scholarly literature has focused on environmental scanning and the use of social

media by nascent entrepreneurs. This paper aims to address these deficiencies in literature. A

theoretical framework is presented that describes the level of scanning towards entrepreneurial

opportunity development and includes fifteen social media based methods for scanning the

environment with the objective of entrepreneurial opportunity development. This methods are

reviewed on their data collection, interpretation and learning. Several implications for both practice

and future research derive from this framework and are discussed.