Latino entrepreneurs and social media adoption: personal and business social network platforms

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine both the Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs’ social media adoption (SMA) for business purposes and the influence of culture on personal versus business social network platform (SNP) selection. Design/methodology/approach The Technology Acceptance Model’s (TAM) factors of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) as drivers of Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs’ social network platform selection are examined as well as the effect of SMA on revenue. Data was collected from 633 small business owners across the United States via an online survey administered in English and Spanish. Findings Results indicate that Latino/Hispanic business owners use personal SNP more than business SNP for business purposes. PU and PEU were not found to predict personal SNP for Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs. However, for Non-Latino/Hispanics, PU was significant while PEU was marginally significant. Findings for PU and PEU as predictors of business SNP indicate similar results for both Latino/Hispanic and non-Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs, where only PEU was significant. Finally, there was no relationship between either business or personal SNP and revenue for either Latino/Hispanic or non-Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs. Practical implications This research provides more insight into Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs’ self-directed engagement in personal SNP (Facebook) and business SNP (LinkedIn) for business purposes and invites future research in this population to further examine cultural influence and business performance. The findings support the need for Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs’ strengthening their competency in social media usage to remain competitive, as doing so will enhance their capability for building customer relationships, brand development, and equity financing. Originality/value This investigation 1) examines SMA’s role in Latino/Hispanic small and medium enterprises (SMEs); 2) distinguishes between personal and business social network platforms; 3) investigates TAM’s relevance for Latino/Hispanic entrepreneurs’ use of social media for business; and 4) explores SME social media usage as a predictor of revenue. We seek to provide practitioners with a greater understanding of how they may influence business success and sustainability through better competency development and usage of social media platforms.

How Does State and Local Government Support Affect Entrepreneurs’ Gender, Age and Race?

In this study, we test whether state and local government support attract female entrepreneurs. We also test to see whether government support attracts younger entrepreneurs and minorities. First, we differentiate between the U.S. states where state government support is high and the U.S. states where state government support is low. Then, we compare small business owners’ gender, age, and race across high- and low-state government support states. We find that there is no significant difference in owners’ gender across high- and low-state government support states. However, our results show that, in the states where state government support is high, there are more young entrepreneurs (age25-34) and fewer middle-aged entrepreneurs (age45-54) when compared to the other states. Our results also show that, in these states, there are fewer Asian or Hispanic entrepreneurs when compared to the other states. When we differentiate between the states where local government support is high and the states where local government support is low, we find that there is no significant difference in owners’ gender or age across high- and low-local government support states. However, our results show that, in the states where the local government support is high, there are more white entrepreneurs and fewer Asian or Hispanic entrepreneurs.

Portrait of the Hispanic Entrepreneur in the United States

The rate of entry of Hispanics into entrepreneurial activity increased from a monthly average rate of new business creation of 0.33 percent of Hispanic adults in 1996 to a rate of 0.52 percent in 2011, while remaining relatively constant for White, non-Hispanics (Fairlie, 2012). Using the NLSY, 1979 Cohort, this chapter presents a portrait of Hispanic entrepreneurs in the United States and provides a comparison to non-Hispanic entrepreneurs on a number of human capital and socio-demographic variables to develop a better understanding of the factors that contribute to the decision to pursue entrepreneurship. Comparisons are also made among Hispanic origin groups.