Becoming consumer entrepreneurs: a grounded theory of consumer entrepreneurship

Dr Rodney Lim studied the blogshop phenomenon in Southeast Asia where social media is used to empower consumers for entrepreneurship. He produced a substantive grounded theory to explain the process in which individuals engaged in passionate consumption in a hobby context are able to circumvent barriers to business participation by leveraging simple technological tools, socially-oriented processes and consumer-to-consumer connections to create tentative entrepreneurial ventures. His research gives insights into a unique genre of informal micro-businesses based on social commerce. It calls attention to issues faced by such enterprises and provides templates for entrepreneurial development by passionate consumers.