THE RISE OF DIGITAL-PRENEURSHIP: A CASE STUDY ON THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN EMPOWERING FEMALE-LED START-UPS
Article Sidebar
-
Digital-preneurship, Female entrepreneurship, Start-ups
Abstract
The rise of digital-preneurship has revolutionized the entrepreneurial landscape, especially for women who face traditional barriers in business. Social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, have emerged as key enablers for female entrepreneurs, offering low-cost solutions for brand development, customer engagement, and business growth. This study explores the role of social media in empowering female-led start-ups, with a focus on how these platforms provide opportunities to overcome gendered entrepreneurial challenges. The primary aim is to examine the strategies used by women entrepreneurs to leverage social media for business success. A qualitative case study design was employed, involving semi-structured interviews with 15 female entrepreneurs who use social media platforms as their primary business tool. Data were analyzed through thematic analysis, focusing on platform usage, content strategies, and entrepreneurial outcomes. The findings reveal that Instagram and TikTok are the most widely used platforms, with women entrepreneurs achieving higher engagement, brand visibility, and business growth through strategic use. Social media was found to significantly enhance business sustainability, customer loyalty, and market reach. This study concludes that social media platforms serve as vital empowerment tools for female entrepreneurs, enabling them to navigate traditional barriers and achieve scalable success. Future research should explore the long-term sustainability of these businesses and the specific challenges faced by women in digital entrepreneurship.
Full text article
References
Agurto Adrianzén, M., Boisvert, S., Fernandez, F., & Torres, J. (2024). Empowering Underprivileged College Students through Leadership Roles in Their Communities: Experimental Evidence from Peru. Journal of Human Capital, 18(4), 668–709. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1086/730272
Albrecht, N., Franzke, S. K., Baum, M., & Isidor, R. (2025). Rebel, reverse, or relent: How female entrepreneurs develop communication strategies on social media to handle gender role stereotypes. European Management Journal. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2025.07.002
Ameridyani, A., Tokito, M., & Saizen, I. (2025). Towards community-driven rural development: Path of women group in empowering rural Women’s capacities and role in rural development. World Development Perspectives, 39, 100700. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100700
Arthur-Holmes, F., & Ofosu, G. (2024). Rethinking state-led formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM): Towards mining licence categorisation, women empowerment and environmental sustainability. Resources Policy, 93, 105058. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2024.105058
Bouvier, G., & Jin, S. (2025). Social media and the new canon of use for social protest: The case of cutting hair to show solidarity with the women of Iran. Discourse, Context & Media, 64, 100867. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2025.100867
Chen, Z., & Barcus, H. R. (2024). The rise of home-returning women’s entrepreneurship in China’s rural development: Producing the enterprising self through empowerment, cooperation, and networking. Journal of Rural Studies, 105, 103156. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2023.103156
Earle, R., Leedie, F., Littlewood, R., Nalatu, S., & Walker, J. (2025). Qualitative exploration of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adolescent community-controlled social and emotional wellbeing program. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 49(4), 100266. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anzjph.2025.100266
Gansweith, E., & Hoving, C. (2025). Exploring perceived social norms when considering a plant-based diet - An interview study. Food and Humanity, 5, 100858. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foohum.2025.100858
Gul, N., Zada, M., Contreras-Barraza, N., Salazar-Sepúlveda, G., Ullah, N., & Mohi Ud Din, Q. (2025). Empowering Balochistan’s skilled women: Unleashing self-employment potential. Acta Psychologica, 260, 105407. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105407
Heyik, M. A., Erdo?an, M., & Romero-Martínez, J. M. (2025). AI-powered meta analysis of geospatial participatory platforms for ecosocial transition in urban design and planning. Urban Governance, 5(4), 411–425. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.006
Hill, M. J., Mangum, L., Coker, S. J., Sutton, T., & Santa Maria, D. M. (2025). Dissemination and Implementation Approach to Increasing Access to Local Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Resources With Black Cisgender Women: Intervention Study With Vlogs Shared on Social Media. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 11. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2196/67367
Hosen, N., Demsar, V., Ferraro, C., & Wheeler, M. A. (2025). Consumer reactions to the use of sex appeals in influencer vs brand social media marketing. Journal of Business Research, 199, 115511. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115511
Kaur, S., & Paul, J. (2024). The gamut of technology, social media and avatar in the organic food market. British Food Journal, 126(12), 4357–4374. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-04-2024-0330
Khoo, C., Thakur, P., Yang, M. J. H., Pung, J. M., & Ting, A. (2025). Body hair and booty calls: Conceptualising ‘empowered-ness’ in travel and tourism for solo female vanlifers. Annals of Tourism Research, 111, 103905. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2025.103905
Koki?, E., Wagner, L., García López del Amo, A., Giering, C. L., Ly Truong, V., Petrowsky, H. M., Husen, O. M., & Loschelder, D. D. (2024). Empowered or informed? Seeking to mitigate gender differences in first-offer assertiveness through pre-negotiation interventions. Journal of Economic Psychology, 105, 102775. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102775
Lacoste, S., Kleinaltenkamp, M., Chen, Y.-T., & Ben Abdelaziz, F. (2025). Social media use in a multistage wine business model with the emergence of wine tourism. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 40(10), 1909–1935. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-06-2024-0428
Li, G., & Aisaiti, G. (2024). The formation mechanism of social media platform brand value under the prosumption logic from the perspective of value co-creation. Kybernetes, 54(11), 6742–6763. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/K-01-2024-0273
Li, L., & Wu, X. (2025). Constructing resistant gender identities on Chinese social media: A multimodal discourse analysis of Chinese male beauty vloggers’ videos on Bilibili. Discourse, Context & Media, 64, 100850. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2024.100850
Mader, P. (2024). Orchestrating self-empowerment in tribal India: Debt bondage, land rights, and the strategic uses of spirituality. World Development, 174, 106440. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106440
Mahmoudi-Dehaki, M., & Nasr-Esfahani, N. (2025). Empowering stuttering female English learners: AI vs. human-AI hybrid tutoring for alleviating social anxiety. Journal of Responsible Technology, 24, 100141. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2025.100141
Maldonado-Castro, J., Gallego-Losada, R., & Montero-Navarro, A. (2024). Mapping the intellectual structure of microfinance and women’s empowerment: A bibliometric analysis. Heliyon, 10(20), e39563. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39563
McCarthy, A. S., & Krause, B. (2024). Age and Agency: Evidence from a Women’s Empowerment Program in Tanzania. World Development, 178, 106591. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106591
Messono, O. O. (2025). The intersection of publics services digitalization and women’s empowerment in tax revenue mobilization. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 219, 124278. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124278
Montag, C., & Elhai, J. D. (2025). The darker side of positive AI attitudes: Investigating associations with (problematic) social media use. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 22, 100613. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2025.100613
Moorhouse, B. L., Wan, Y., Wu, C., Wu, M., & Ho, T. Y. (2025). Generative AI tools and empowerment in L2 academic writing. System, 133, 103779. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2025.103779
Morshed, T. B., & Hernández-Lara, A. B. (2024). Women travelers and social media: Charting the path to economic and entrepreneurial opportunities. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 34, 100952. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2024.100952
Murali, R., & Govindan, M. (2025). Solar threads and social knots: Gender and energy transitions in the weaving community of Varanasi, India. Energy Research & Social Science, 130, 104416. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2025.104416
Nguyen, H. T. Van, & Nguyen, V. T. P. (2025). The gendered landscape of tourism: social stereotypes and job difficulties for female tour guides. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 8(7), 2633–2648. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-01-2025-0093
Parthiban, R., Sun, R., Qureshi, I., & Bandyopadhyay, S. (2024). Empowering rural micro-entrepreneurs through technoficing: A process model for mobilizing and developing indigenous knowledge. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 33(2), 101836. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2024.101836
Richardson, P. E., & Wilson, S. (2024). Evaluating a women’s digital inclusion and storytelling initiative through the lens of empowerment. Digital Geography and Society, 7, 100092. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2024.100092
Shang, L. (2024). From the emancipated to the emancipator: an integrative perspective on women social entrepreneurs’ emancipation experiences. Gender in Management, 39(7), 977–996. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-03-2023-0065
Smolarczyk, K., Mouratidis, M., Uhing, S., Becker, R., & Kröner, S. (2024). Let’s get them on board: Focus group discussions with adolescents on empowering leisure engagement in Fab Labs and makerspaces. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 41, 100669. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100669
Tan, Z.-S., See-To, E. W. K., Lee, K.-Y., Dai, H.-N., & Wong, M.-L. (2024). Privacy-preserving federated learning for proactive maintenance of IoT-empowered multi-location smart city facilities. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 231, 103996. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2024.103996
Wang, Q., Hallin, A., Lång, S., & Barner-Rasmussen, W. (2024). The many socials: how a social enterprise uses social media to communicate social capital-based social value. A case study. Social Enterprise Journal, 21(1), 22–45. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-08-2023-0104
Widiastuti, T., Al-shami, S. A., Mawardi, I., Zulaikha, S., Haron, R., Kasri, R. A., Mustofa, M. U. Al, & Dewi, E. P. (2024). Capturing the barriers and strategic solutions for women empowerment: Delphy analytical network process. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 10(3), 100345. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joitmc.2024.100345
Ye, S., Shi, L., Feng, Z., & Hyuk, G. (2025). Toward a smarter, sustainable and satisfying life: Exploring the mechanism of smart rural tourism construction empowering rural revitalization in the area of Yangtze River Delta. Heliyon, 11(6), e42704. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e42704
Zhang, D. J., Bentz, M. G., Shim, J. K., & Lee, S. S.-J. (2025). The All of Us Research Program’s Social Media Outreach to Underrepresented Populations: Mixed Methods Analysis. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2196/63793
Authors
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel Wilson, Catherine Li, Maria Garcia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
