Measuring the association between students’ exposure to social media and their valuation of sustainability in entrepreneurship

Abstract

Currently, university students can read content from various social media sites; however, little is known about the relationship between students' social media exposure and their valuation of sustainability in entrepreneurship and of environmental and social care as drivers of new venture creation. This research seeks to reduce this knowledge gap, evaluating discrepancies among undergraduates according to the intensity of their social media use. An online survey was applied to compare students’ perceptions based on their reading of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. A total of 143 valid responses of students in business and engineering careers in Chile were analysed using the Mann-Whitney test, showing a difference in the perceptions of undergraduates who read social media content once a day or more. The results show that a higher frequency of reading such content is related to higher perceived relevance of environmental sustainability, social welfare, and fair trade; likewise, it is linked with less perceived importance of sustainability as a driver of entrepreneurship. This evidence is relevant in recognizing the potential of social media sites to strengthen the higher education in sustainable entrepreneurship because these channels can be incorporated as a formal source of information for learning and its use is still limited. Future research should explore what specific types of content have the most significant impact on perceptions of sustainable entrepreneurship and promote particular methods for their application in this area.

The Valuation of Sustainable Entrepreneurship

“…The study that analyzes the relationship between sustainability valuation (Arshad et al, 2020;Ballestar et al, 2020;Barrera Verdugo & Villarroel, 2021;Schlange, 2014), social media exposure frequency (Kolhar et al, 2021), and drive for entrepreneurship (Barrera Verdugo & Villarroel, 2021) towards sustainability in entrepreneurship has been increasing recently.…”

“…Entrepreneurship itself can be purported as the action of turning an opportunity of innovation into something that can contribute to generating a profit and helping consumers solve their problems by cultivating available sources. University students' motives towards entrepreneurship have a correlation with the urge to gain power and achievements (Barrera Verdugo & Villarroel, 2021).…”

“…Barrera Verdugo & Villarroel (2021) explain sustainable entrepreneurship has grown to be the new growing upcoming trend for entrepreneurship that in line with the United Nation 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's Goals. The collaboration from different resources to generate profit shaping the entrepreneurship upcoming trend (Woronkowicz, 2021).…”

“…Sustainability can be described as the harmony between environment, social equity, and economy in order to create a better quality of living for the upcoming generations. Sustainability includes the way people consume products and perceive the well-being of the surrounding which affects the way businesses do their strategies and create the company's vision and mission ahead, especially with the current circumstances of environmental damage around the world such as the increase of pollution, and global warming (Barrera Verdugo & Villarroel, 2021;Oláh et al, 2020).…”

“…The growing exposure of social media amongst 97% of the young generation has a large effect of affecting the behavior of the consumers towards how they perceive their day-to-day lifestyle (Bakrania, 2020;Kolhar et al, 2021). This study focuses on determining the relationship between the perception of entrepreneurship and the current sustainable development which could be helpful for further studies in universities regarding sustainable entrepreneurship programs and addressing the knowledge gap in regards of the topic (Barrera Verdugo & Villarroel, 2021).…”