Editorials: 2021 Vol: 25 Issue: 2
Aidin Salamzadeh, University of Tehran
Despite their importance, artisans and arts entrepreneurs are among the less studied entrepreneurs in the extant literature. Besides, they are using social media platforms proactively to [co-]create value in recent years (Welsh et al., 2014). On the one hand, arts entrepreneurs generally have less social media skills to explore, evaluate and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities (Zanjani et al., 2013; Bastaman, 2018). On the other hand, their access to such platforms, which are used highly in various societies, is considered an opportunity for them to create more value (Beckman & Hart, 2015; Park & Shin, 2021). Artisans and arts entrepreneurs are promoting their cultures and have a significant role in developing societies (Elias et al., 2018; Rivetti & Migliaccio, 2018). Besides, their engagement in business activities could lead to significant wealth creation.
Despite their importance, artisans and arts entrepreneurs are among the less studied entrepreneurs in the extant literature. Besides, they are using social media platforms proactively to [co-]create value in recent years (Welsh et al., 2014). On the one hand, arts entrepreneurs generally have less social media skills to explore, evaluate and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities (Zanjani et al., 2013; Bastaman, 2018). On the other hand, their access to such platforms, which are used highly in various societies, is considered an opportunity for them to create more value (Beckman & Hart, 2015; Park & Shin, 2021). Artisans and arts entrepreneurs are promoting their cultures and have a significant role in developing societies (Elias et al., 2018; Rivetti & Migliaccio, 2018). Besides, their engagement in business activities could lead to significant wealth creation. Therefore, several opportunities exist for future researchers (Salamzadeh, 2020a). First of all, studying artisans and arts entrepreneurs' status in various societies and considering their needs would be interesting topics for those interested in this research area. Secondly, scrutinizing the factors affecting their success, failure, or improved performance would contribute to this area of research. This includes exploring and studying various aspects of their stories and businesses and new relationships among different variables in previously studied entrepreneurial frameworks or models. Thirdly, assumptions regarding artisans and arts entrepreneurs might be revisited, as these individuals are more emotional, less focused on business and profit, and therefore, more prone to fail in their business. Fourthly, proposing new concepts could also contribute to this area of study. Some concepts are still less elaborated in the literature, such as arts entrepreneurship, their typologies, and relevance to media entrepreneurship (Salamzadeh, 2020; Salamzadeh & Arbatani, 2020). These are only a few concepts to be explored by future researchers. Besides, their approaches towards using social media platforms and new technologies are yet to be scrutinized by researchers (Salamzadeh & Radovic Markovic, 2018; Salamzadeh et al., 2019b). This would be affected by Internet penetration, mobile devices, and media literacy rates in a country (Salamzadeh et al., 2019a). Also, considering various entrepreneurship and business-related theories to artists could be useful, especially as these theories are overlooked. Using various research methods could also be useful in this field. Such studies will be useful for artisans, arts entrepreneurs, policymakers and scholars who would like to pay attention to this area. In sum, this editorial note suggests a question titled “How Artisans and Arts Entrepreneurs use Social Media Platforms?”, which is open for future researchers to be answered.