The role of social media for value co-creation by women entrepreneurs in a rural area.

Purpose :This study sought to understand the the social media-based mechanisms for value creation by women entrepreneurs in rural areas. It aimed to answer two research questions: Are there new business values created from the use of social media? And if there are, what is the mechanism that enables the entrepreneurs to create such values?
Methodology: Qualitative data analysis was carried out using semi-structured interviews and observations on women entrepreneurs and their customers in Molompar Raya, a village in the eastern part of Indonesia.
Findings : This study reveals the creation of three new values by women entrepreneurs on Facebook. Moreover, it explains the process where women entrepreneurs combine their digital skills with resources gained from people within their close social circles to create valuable social media content and new offerings for their customers.
Originality: This paper combines insights from marketing literature on value creation and entrepreneurship literature on resource mobilization to build a better understanding of an innovation process and outcomes by women entrepreneurs in a specific contextual setting.