1 1 A classification of social media methods of environmental scanning for entrepreneurial opportunity development Natalie den Engelse University of Twente n.d.g.denengelse@utwente.nl Fons Wijnhoven University of Twente a.b.j.m.wijnhoven@utwente.nl Aard Groen University of Twente a.j.groen@utwente.nl Abstract A limited amount of scholarly literature has focused on environmental scanning and the use of social media by nascent entrepreneurs. This paper aims to address these deficiencies in literature. A theoretical framework is presented that describes the level of scanning towards entrepreneurial opportunity development and includes fifteen social media based methods for scanning the environment with the objective of entrepreneurial opportunity development. This methods are reviewed on their data collection, interpretation and learning. Several implications for both practice and future research derive from this framework and are discussed. Keywords: web 2.0; environmental scanning, entrepreneurship; opportunity development Introduction Entrepreneurs in early stages of developing their entrepreneurial opportunity often do not have a great deal of internal secondary data or historical experience to help fill their information needs (Mohan- Neill, 1995; Lang, Calantone & Gudmundson, 1997; McGee & Sawyerr, 2003). As a result they resort to the usage of information from outside the organization (McGee & Sawyerr, 2003). One way of collecting such information is by environmental scanning, which aims at providing current information that facilitates the identification of opportunities, detect and interpret problem areas and implement strategic or structural adaptations towards the environment entrepreneurs operate in (Daft & Weick, 1984; Daft, Sormunen, & Parks, 1988; McGee & Sawyerr, 2003; McEwen, 2008; Choo, 1999; 2001). With the advent of social media opportunities arise for entrepreneurs to scan the environment. An abundance of user-generated content is created (Chen, 2010) that is freely available to the general public and hence to entrepreneurs. Many customers share their ideas, problems, knowledge and experience via social media (Kozinets,2002). This offers opportunities to listen-in into socially generated knowledge (De Valck, van Bruggen, & Wierenga, 2009; Moor & Weignand, 2005). A majority of social media focus on a specific issue, theme or topic. This enables entrepreneurs to identify target groups relevant to their entrepreneurial opportunity and involve them in developing their entrepreneurial opportunity. Research on environmental scanning and social media are quite limited in the field of entrepreneurship (Stewart, May & Kalia, 2008; Song, Di Benedetto & Perry, 2009; Peters & Brush, 1996). Research on environmental scanning has mostly centered around mature firms and not on entrepreneurs that are in the process of developing their entrepreneurial opportunity. The use of social media by entrepreneurial and established organizations is of sufficiently recent occurrence that there is a limited scholarly literature on the subject (Fischer & Reuber, 2010). Research conducted on social media has mostly centered on social media as marketing tool. Ensuing these deficiencies in literate the following research question arises: What social media methods are available for entrepreneurs environmental scanning activities with the objective entrepreneurial opportunity development?