Nurturing Entrepreneurial Intentions of Students Using Virtual Communities

Abstract

Web 2.0 technologies have completely transformed the learning and teaching pedagogies, affecting millions of students worldwide. Virtual communities on social media can play a vital role in helping students to learn new skills and upgrade their knowledge through the exchange of information (Preece, 1999). Unquestionably two main features responsible for this dramatic change are its knowledge-sharing capacities coupled with interactive interface. This study is a unique attempt to understand how social media can be used to imparting entrepreneurial training and how it can influence intentions to start a business venture. Results from this study revealed that the entrepreneurial Intentions are the consequence of the knowledge-sharing activities and interaction in virtual knowledge communities. This research has suggestions for practitioners as well as academicians. Sharing of Information and social interaction between members can be extremely useful in educating young entrepreneurs. For researcher working on entrepreneurial intentions, this study has initiated a new discussion on online entrepreneurial education and learning, which needs to be further explored.