Determinants of online social entrepreneurs’ brand loyalty: a value creation model

To fill the gap in literature, this research extends the use of service marketing concepts to social entrepreneurs’ initiatives on social media platforms. It is one of few attempts to visualize social entrepreneurs from a business perspective. This research applies the concept of hybridization to social innovation. It aims to develop and examine a novel model to identify the main determinants of value creation on social entrepreneurs’ online platforms with the aim of building loyalty, increasing their members and enhancing profit making opportunities to guarantee sustainable success. The data of 320 respondents were collected through a survey on the online platforms of social entrepreneurs and analyzed using Smart PLS 3.3. Results show that value creation on social entrepreneurs’ digital platforms is a function of charismatic leadership skills, online brand community interactivity and customer brand identification.The results also indicate that value creation is essential for social online entrepreneurs to brand their social innovations. One of the main implications of this research is emphasizing the explicit role of leadership in the process of social value creation and the branding of online social entrepreneurs’ innovations. This provides guidance to social entrepreneurs seeking to enlarge their market share, increase their members, position their social innovations, and integrate profit orientation with their non-profit initiatives.