Purpose

This study aims to examine the impact of social media (SM) on the creation of digital entrepreneurship by female (irrespective of age) and youth male (aged 18–29 years) entrepreneurs, investigate if SM empowers those entrepreneurs and compare the empowerment characteristics between female and youth male entrepreneurs before and after starting their businesses.

Design/methodology/approach

Self-assessment questionnaires were collected from a sample of 408 Egyptian female and youth male digital entrepreneurs from Greater Cairo, whose businesses had been operating for more than one year.

Findings

The research showed the following four results: Of the surveyed entrepreneurs, 95% asserted that without SM, they would not have started their businesses. Female and youth male entrepreneurs are empowered both on personal and relational levels, and women’s empowerment is more evident in the latter. Before digital entrepreneurship, youth males have significantly higher averages than female entrepreneurs in almost all empowerment characteristics, whereas after digital entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs have significantly higher averages in making decisions related to investment, personal education and personal health, as well as those of other household members. Female entrepreneurs are relatively more empowered than youth males after digital entrepreneurship when each group is compared with its initial status.

Originality/value

This study’s originality stems from using a large sample of entrepreneurs, including youth males, not just females; employing a more structured, comprehensive measure of empowerment than found in the literature because it included the rarely used psychological dimension; considering more than one SM tool and comparing empowerment of females to that of youth males.

中文翻译：

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社交媒体对埃及女性和青年男性企业家赋权的影响

目的

本研究旨在研究社交媒体 (SM) 对女性（不分年龄）和青年男性（18-29 岁）企业家创建数字创业的影响，调查 SM 是否赋予这些企业家权力，并比较两者之间的赋权特征创业前后的女性和青年男性企业家。

设计/方法/方法

从大开罗的 408 名埃及女性和青年男性数字企业家的样本中收集了自我评估问卷，他们的企业已经运营了一年多。

发现

该研究显示了以下四个结果： 在接受调查的企业家中，95% 的人断言，如果没有 SM，他们就不会创业。女性和青年男性企业家在个人和关系层面都获得了赋权，而女性赋权在后者中更为明显。在数字创业之前，青年男性在几乎所有赋权特征上的平均水平都显着高于女性创业者，而在数字创业之后，女性创业者在投资、个人教育和个人健康以及其他家庭决策方面的平均水平显着提高成员。在将每个群体与其初始状态进行比较时，女性企业家在数字创业之后的权力相对比青年男性更高。

原创性/价值

这项研究的独创性源于使用了大量企业家样本，包括青年男性，而不仅仅是女性；采用比文献中更结构化、更全面的赋权措施，因为它包括很少使用的心理维度；考虑不止一种 SM 工具，并将女性赋权与青年男性赋权进行比较。