When technology shapes community in the Cultural and Craft Industries: Understanding virtual entrepreneurship in online ecosystems

With the aim of providing greater insight into the nature and dynamics of the online entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Cultural and Craft Industries (CCIs), this study investigated the novel interactions taking place among virtual entrepreneurial firms operating in a relatively new technological context i.e. cybermediary platforms. It is argued that the technologically enabled connectivity offered by these platforms helps foster a distinctive sense of virtual community. Connectivity with users and peer-firms allows a greater sense of identity, shared values, and membership that may not exist routinely. This sense of virtual community may give rise to mutually beneficial firm behaviors whereby support of other businesses becomes the norm. The literatures on sense of virtual community, e-word of mouth, online social capital and e-community are integrated to examine the entrepreneurial dynamics in a context epitomizing collaboration, cooperation and creativity. Results from 732 virtual entrepreneurial firms support the hypotheses that (i) a sense of virtual community is positively related to supporting and promoting peers in the CCIs; (ii) promoting other entrepreneurial ventures increases online social capital and (iii) this in turn creates beneficial outcomes for virtual entrepreneurial firms in the CCIs. Future research may delve even deeper into how technologies may influence the community, collaborative or competitive nature of firm behavior.