Using social media for opportunity exploration in social enterprises:: Sensemaking and signaling perspectives

Dhruba Borah; Jihye Kim; Nicolas Li

doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124367

Using social media for opportunity exploration in social enterprises: Sensemaking and signaling perspectives

Dhruba Borah (Lead / Corresponding author)
, Jihye Kim
, Nicolas Li

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

77 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper investigates how social enterprises leverage social media (SM) for opportunity exploration. Using a multiple case study design, we conducted 51 interviews across 15 South Korean social enterprises and applied the Gioia methodology for thematic analysis. Drawing on sensemaking theory, our findings highlight the central role of public SM platforms, particularly Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, in enabling both individual and collective sensemaking around social problems and potential solutions. We show that individual sensemaking is supported through scanning of content posted on external actors' SM profiles, while collective sensemaking occurs via sourcing interactions with external actors on SM. Additionally, anchoring signaling theory, we show how social enterprises strategically manage their own SM content to communicate their capabilities and identity, including those of their founders, to an external audience, thereby encouraging their engagement in the collective sensemaking process. Our study contributes to developing an in-depth understanding for social enterprises to utilize SM for opportunity exploration, distinguishing between opportunity identification and evaluation stages, and outlining the associated challenges.

Original language	English
Article number	124367
Number of pages	18
Journal	Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Volume	221
Early online date	24 Sept 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124367
Publication status	Published - Dec 2025

Keywords

Social enterprise
social media
opportunity exploration
sensemaking
signaling
South Korea
Signaling
Opportunity exploration
Sensemaking
Social media

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Business and International Management
Applied Psychology
Management of Technology and Innovation

Access to Document

10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124367Licence: CC BY

Final Published VersionFinal published version, 1.22 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Using social media for opportunity exploration in social enterprises:: Sensemaking and signaling perspectives",

abstract = "This paper investigates how social enterprises leverage social media (SM) for opportunity exploration. Using a multiple case study design, we conducted 51 interviews across 15 South Korean social enterprises and applied the Gioia methodology for thematic analysis. Drawing on sensemaking theory, our findings highlight the central role of public SM platforms, particularly Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, in enabling both individual and collective sensemaking around social problems and potential solutions. We show that individual sensemaking is supported through scanning of content posted on external actors' SM profiles, while collective sensemaking occurs via sourcing interactions with external actors on SM. Additionally, anchoring signaling theory, we show how social enterprises strategically manage their own SM content to communicate their capabilities and identity, including those of their founders, to an external audience, thereby encouraging their engagement in the collective sensemaking process. Our study contributes to developing an in-depth understanding for social enterprises to utilize SM for opportunity exploration, distinguishing between opportunity identification and evaluation stages, and outlining the associated challenges.",

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AU - Li, Nicolas

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N2 - This paper investigates how social enterprises leverage social media (SM) for opportunity exploration. Using a multiple case study design, we conducted 51 interviews across 15 South Korean social enterprises and applied the Gioia methodology for thematic analysis. Drawing on sensemaking theory, our findings highlight the central role of public SM platforms, particularly Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, in enabling both individual and collective sensemaking around social problems and potential solutions. We show that individual sensemaking is supported through scanning of content posted on external actors' SM profiles, while collective sensemaking occurs via sourcing interactions with external actors on SM. Additionally, anchoring signaling theory, we show how social enterprises strategically manage their own SM content to communicate their capabilities and identity, including those of their founders, to an external audience, thereby encouraging their engagement in the collective sensemaking process. Our study contributes to developing an in-depth understanding for social enterprises to utilize SM for opportunity exploration, distinguishing between opportunity identification and evaluation stages, and outlining the associated challenges.

AB - This paper investigates how social enterprises leverage social media (SM) for opportunity exploration. Using a multiple case study design, we conducted 51 interviews across 15 South Korean social enterprises and applied the Gioia methodology for thematic analysis. Drawing on sensemaking theory, our findings highlight the central role of public SM platforms, particularly Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, in enabling both individual and collective sensemaking around social problems and potential solutions. We show that individual sensemaking is supported through scanning of content posted on external actors' SM profiles, while collective sensemaking occurs via sourcing interactions with external actors on SM. Additionally, anchoring signaling theory, we show how social enterprises strategically manage their own SM content to communicate their capabilities and identity, including those of their founders, to an external audience, thereby encouraging their engagement in the collective sensemaking process. Our study contributes to developing an in-depth understanding for social enterprises to utilize SM for opportunity exploration, distinguishing between opportunity identification and evaluation stages, and outlining the associated challenges.

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KW - signaling

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