Page - 287 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

During the event, Lynn soldmakeup products at a stand near the entrance, where everyonewhowalked inwas introduced to thewhatWIBhas tooffer, alongwith its quality level and price ranges. Lynn states that, “personal connections really help in Lebanon; that’s just how theway thingsworkhere. If youneed something,you refer to someone.”Shegives the example of the timewhen she needed andwas in search for a delivery agency for her business. One of her acquaintances hadworked with a particular delivery agency and recommended them to her; so, she didn’t face any hesitation in choosing, trusting, andworkingwith this agency. Moreover, Lynn’s close friends supported her and offered various ideas and suggestions regarding her business. Our interviewwithLynn hinted at an important link between social and human capital. The social capital, including personal connections, can serve to form a company’s human capital. This is the case with Lynn, as her friends and herself makeupWIB’s team.Whenaskedabout her employees, the founder states that she doesn’t refer to themas employees, but rather asmembers of a team comprised of herself, an editor who is responsible for graphic design and Photoshop, an entre- preneur who also has a cinematography (photography and videography) back- ground, a person responsible for customer support, and another for answering messages on social media. This small team built herWeb site and keeps track of inventory.Allmembers of the teamconstantlywork on developing and expanding their skill-set. Inaddition toLynn’spersonal connectionscontributing to thecompany’shuman capital, they ended upbeing a big part of the clientele and supporters of her online shop. Lynn says, “in Lebanon, everything is based on Public Relations.”When Lynnfirst introducedWIB toher friends, family, students, andother acquaintances, they weren’t reluctant to purchase its products, for they trusted that she wouldn’t sell and promote an arbitrary brand of bad quality; thus, theyweren’t dubious of it being a rip-off due toher good relationshipswith students and friends andassumed the brand to be of good quality. Thus, Lynn’s asset was her social capital and the trust that comes with it. She gained a lot of customers through her friends, students, and other personal con- nections. Due to their trust in Lynn and her assessment of quality and standards, many ended up purchasing products to try them out. As she says, “because they know me and trust me, they trusted the brand.” So, upon hearing Lynn being associatedwith the brand,more peoplewere inclined to try out the brand, but this really only goes so far as a “first impression.” Hence, according to Lynn, the key to creating long-lasting customer relation- ships, maintaining customers’ trust, and having loyal customers is not only to consistently deliver of-value products and show them their quality level, design, and packaging, but also to provide themwith after-sale services such as customer support and delivery. The founder points out that for her, “it’s also a matter of self-satisfaction or self-esteem.” If peoplewere to be dissatisfiedwith the products and started giving bad reviews or feedback, not onlywould people lose trust in the brand but also in 296 G. Samara and J. Terzian