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demand for apparel is a constant.âHe adds, âstores inmalls are also closing, not
because people stopped buying clothes, but because people are purchasing them
throughonlineplatforms such asAliexpress.com.â John elaborates by saying, âone
day,my family and I had gathered for a familymeeting, wherewe concluded that
theLebanese economic situation hadbeen declining, negatively impacting our real
estate business.â Thus, leaving their real estate business on hold, John and his
family decided to come up with a new business venture. John suggested
e-commerce, and the family board agreed.
2. Personal Connections/Family asOpportunities:
Personal connections can be considered as part of social capital and can serve
digital entrepreneurs during their journey. John ardently emphasizes the role of his
personal connections in the process of setting up his business.He says, âhad it not
been formypersonal connections, Iwouldnât have the number of vendors thatmy
business has, norwould I have been able to equip relatively fastWi-Fi toLebMall
as quickly as I did, through the help of my connections. It wouldâve takenme a
year.âHis familyâs reputationplayedanessential role inbuilding thoseconnections
and on capitalizing on old connections. Therefore, Johnâs privileged position pro-
vided him with sufïŹcient preceding social and ïŹnancial resources that overcome
knowledge limitations to develop his entrepreneurial ideas.
Familycanbe regardedas a sourceofboth social andïŹnancial capital.The level
of trust among family members, as well as their moral and ïŹnancial support,
beneïŹts digital entrepreneurs. Familywealth provides advantages in the launch of
any typeofbusiness.For instance, Johnattributes the launchofLebMall.comtohis
familyâs tremendous supportwithïŹnancial resources. Johnmentions that the basis
of his family profession is real estate.His family enterprise provided the necessary
capital to launch LebMall.com; hence, he did not need to search for funding. He
says, âif itwerenât formy familyâs enterprise, LebMallwouldâve shut downby the
end of the ïŹrst day.â
3. Weak Institutional Infrastructure as a Challenge:
Johnemphasized theweak institutional infrastructure ofLebanon,which leaves the
digital entrepreneur unprotected. In Lebanon, there isnât a law or database that
protects e-commerce. John says, âfor example, if I losemy password, there is no
backup.âNobodycancomplain about themishapsor errors that occur in theonline
world in Lebanon. Additionally, there is a lack of protection for consumers in
e-commerce.He says, âif you receive a broken ormalfunctioning product, there is
nothing you can do about it.â As a result of the absence of law for digital
entrepreneurship, there isnât a syndicate for e-commerce inLebanon. This absence
indicates that there are no forces that can instill pressure on the government for the
declarationof the rightsofdigital entrepreneurs, suchasprotection lawsor services.
The founder was not hesitant to express the challenges he had faced along his
process of launching LebMall. He states that these challenges range from cultural
292 G. Samara and J. Terzian
Digital Entrepreneurship
Impact on Business and Society
- Titel
- Digital Entrepreneurship
- Untertitel
- Impact on Business and Society
- Autoren
- Mariusz Soltanifar
- Mathew Hughes
- Lutz Göcke
- Verlag
- Springer Verlag
- Ort
- Cham
- Datum
- 2021
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-030-53914-6
- Abmessungen
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 340
- Schlagwörter
- Entrepreneurship, IT in Business, Innovation/Technology Management, Business and Management, Open Access, Digital transformation and entrepreneurship, ICT based business models
- Kategorie
- International