Symposium at Al-Musanna College of Technology, Oman

1. A Study to understand the impact
of Social Media on Virtual
Entrepreneurial Venture with
reference to KnowledgeOman
Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty
Mr. Salim Al Rashdi
Mr. Abdul Rahman Al-Naafie
Ibra College of Technology
Sultanate of Oman

2. Contents
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Objective
• Background
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Findings, Analysis, Interpretations
• Proposed Interventions
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
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Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty, Mr. Salim Al
Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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3. Abstract
• Social entrepreneurship and social media are like
brothers and sisters of the same family. Social
entrepreneurship venture solely with a not for profit
motto are generally targeting their offerings to a wide
range of stakeholders, notably the society. Social
media has given new dimension to organizational
promotion and communication not only to make their
presence felt and cut across the communication
clutter, but also for leveraging the strength of this
powerful tool. The intertwined relationship between
the two siblings is often neglected owing to various
reasons. The paper makes an attempt to understand
the linkage by focusing on the operational model of a
social entrepreneurial venture like
KnowledgeOman, the leading knowledge transfer
initiative in the Sultanate of Oman, along with the
organizations usage of social media tools and
techniques in line with their vision of making Oman a
knowledge driven society.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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4. Introduction
• Entrepreneurs –Societal and National
Backbone.
• Social Entrepreneurship Vs. Business
Entrepreneurship.
• Social Entrepreneurship for profit and
not for profit cause(Dees, 1998)
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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5. Objective
• To understand the operating model
of social entrepreneurial venture.
• To study the functioning of a virtual
socially focused volunteer
organization.
• To understand the importance of
social media on a social
entrepreneurial venture.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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6. Background
• KnowledgeOman(KO) founded by
Omani IT wonder boy, Mr. Tariq Al
Barwani.
• KO Vision, Mission in line with His
Majesty, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said’s
vision of metamorphosing Oman
into a Knowledge based Society.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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7. Background (Continued)
• 2008 saw the humble beginning.
• For the community, by the community.
• From a thread disseminating
knowledge to the leading Societal
Knowledge based initiative.
• Local, Regional and Global awards as
recognition for KO.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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8. Snapshot of Literature Review
• Social entrepreneurs collaborate and work
together for stakeholders like
society(Ashoka, 2013)
• Social entrepreneurs isn’t satisfied only with
fish and the teaching how to fish, their
objective lies in revolutionizing the fishing
industry (OPB,2005)
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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9. Methodology
• Secondary data generated
through Facebook, Twitter.
• Virtual Communication between
the volunteers.
• Primary data through convenience
sampling generated in the virtual
mode.
• Data analysis and Interpretation
• Proposed Interventions.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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10. Findings, Analysis, Interpret
ations
• Data analysis revealed the
information in subsequent slides.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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11. Inorganic Reach of the Content posted in the
Facebook page of KO from January 2013 to
August 2013
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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50%
20%
15%
15%
KO related contrnt
Shared Contents from other's wall
Exclusive Content by Volunteers
Independent content by volunteers

12. Posts visibility in the Facebook page
of KO from January 2013 to April 2013
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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50%
30%
10% 10%
30%
25%
45%
10%
40%
20% 20% 20%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
January(2013) February(2013) March(2013) April(2013)
Audio-Video Posts
Text only Posts
Picture only posts

13. Comparison of followers of KO in Twitter
and Facebook from January 2013 to April
2013
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Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty, Mr. Salim Al
Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13
Followers in Twitter
Followers in Facebook

14. Analysis of the data generated from the
Facebook page of KO for the period from
1/12/2013 to 7/12/2013
• (1) Page likes- The total page likes for KO
went up to 6,036, a minuscule 0.1% reach
from last week. It had 5 new page
likes, which again came down by 70.6% vis-
à-vis that of last week.
• (2) Post reach- A total reach of 1261, which
came down by 65.5% from last week. The
post reach within the period under study
was 1,170, which came down by 66.1%.
• (3) Engagement- 190 people were engaged
which was 52% lower, with 96 likes, 8
comments, 2 shares and 758 post clicks.
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Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty, Mr. Salim Al
Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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15. Beneficiaries opinion about
the Facebook page of KO
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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55%
35%
5%
5%
10%
Informative
Helpful
Trash
Timepass

16. Respondents opinion about the
Facebook page and Twitter account
of KO
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Align FB and Twitter
Keep them separate
Position differently on the basis of knowledge disseminated
Keep them as it is
45%
25%
15%
15%
20%
10%
50%
20%
35%
25%
20%
20%
Look and Feel
Presentation
Corporate Message

17. Respondents opinion about
the website of KO
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21%
10%
59%
10%
69%
Website is dynamic
Website is static
Look and Feel needs improvement
Status Quo can be maintained

18. Proposed Interventions
Serial
Number
Proposed Interventions Reasons for the proposed
interventions
1. The look and feel of the website should be
improved.
Blending audio-visuals with
static picture of the major
happening would increase the
dynamism of the website.
2. Twitter can be an independent account from the
facebook page
The separation of twitter
contents from the page is a
necessity as replication of
content may lead to loss of
audiences, especially those
who prefer different social
mediums.
3. Corporate message should be scribbled in all the
sources
The corporate message should
be a part of all communication
as it serves to align the
offerings with the vision and
mission of the organization.
4. Need for enhanced participation and interactivity KO being a social
entrepreneurial venture
through the virtual
mode, there is an increased
need of increasing the
participation and interactivity
of the audience to derive more
learning.
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Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty, Mr. Salim Al
Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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19. Conclusion
• Social media the fulcrum for
volunteer based virtual social
entrepreneurial.
• The power of social media is
immense.
• Periodical analysis of the data
would reveal the direction the
organization is heading to vis-à-
vis the social media tools being
used.
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Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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20. Bibliography
• (1) Gregory Dees. (1998). The Meaning of “Social Entrepreneurship”. Available:
http://csi.gsb.stanford.edu/the-meaning-social-entrepreneurship%20. Last accessed 10th December 2013.
• (2) Knowledge Oman. (2008). Home Page. Available: http://knowledgeoman.com/en/. Last accessed
10th of December 2013.
• (3) Ashoka, Innovators for the public. (2013). What is a Social Entrepreneur? Available:
https://www.ashoka.org/social_entrepreneur. Last accessed 10th of December 2013.
• (4) OPB. (2005). What is Social Entrepreneurship? Available:
http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/whatis/. Last accessed 10th of December 2013.
• (5) Shapelo, A;Sokol,L. (1982). The Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship. SSRN, Encyclopedia of
Entrepreneurship. 11 (3), p72-90.
• (6) Aldrich, H;Zimmer,C . (1986). Entrepreneurship Through Social Networks. SSRN--Champaign's
Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship. 2 (3), p54-
67.
• (7) Haugh, H. (2005). A research agenda for social entrepreneurship. Emerald Group Publishing
Limited. 1 (1), P1-12.
• (8) Correa,T;Hinsley,A;Zuniga,H. (2010). Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’
personality and social media use. Computers in Human Behavior. 26 (2), p247-253.
• (9) KnowledgeOman in facebook. (2008). Facts about Facebook. Available:
https://www.facebook.com/knowledgeoman?sk=page_insights§ion=navOverview. Last accessed 10th of
December 2013.
• (10) Knowledge_Oman@Twitter. (2008). KnowledgeOman Twitter. Available:
www.twitter.com/knowledge_oman. Last accessed 10th December 2013.
• (11) Chakraborty,M;Aoudia,R;Rashdi,S. (2013). A Case Study on Community Entrepreneurship with
reference to KnowledgeOman. In: Miryala, R. Changing Paradigms of Rural Management. India: Zenon
Publishing. p72-85.
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Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty, Mr. Salim Al
Rashdi, Mr. Abdul Rahman Al Naafie
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