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This paper examined online sentiment, key themes and patterns evident in social media activity about digital entrepreneurship. It provides a snapshot-in-time, visual-first perspective on social media user-generated-content (UGC) to better understand the topic of digital entrepreneurship. Global data consisting of 31,017 publicly available UGC which used the #digitalentrepreneurship (hashtag) and the keywords ‘digital entrepreneurship’ were collected. A computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), Leximancer, was used for an automated text-mining analysis. There is positive online sentiment surrounding digital entrepreneurship technology, ecosystem and industry, and one which promotes women transformation of digital entrepreneurship globally. Negative sentiment pointed out that future development and support of youth in digital entrepreneurship is needed. Digital entrepreneurs were identified as needing to focus on strategy, leadership, management, and social media platforms. A comprehensive perspective on the state of digital entrepreneurship in online UGC is provided. Insights into the challenges, issues, changes, success stories and key topics in digital entrepreneurship are highlighted. Future research is encouraged to adopt longitudinal and quantitative approaches, to provide further insights into the evolution of digital entrepreneurship. The paper contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by applying the Social Exchange Theory and the Social Media User Engagement Framework to better understand social media activity around digital entrepreneurship. The findings show that there are real challenges and issues to overcome but there are also changes occurring in digital entrepreneurship and social media users are keen to share and learn from digital entrepreneurship success stories.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate the use of Twitter in business as a medium for knowledge sharing and to crowdsource information to support innovation and enhance business relationships in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a combination of methodologies for gathering data in 52 face-to-face interviews across five countries and the downloaded posts from each of the interviewees' Twitter accounts. The tweets were analysed using structural topic modelling (STM), and then compared to the interview data. This method enabled triangulation between stated use of Twitter and respondent's actual tweets.FindingsThe research confirmed that individuals used Twitter as a source of information, ideas, promotion and innovation within their industry. Twitter facilitates building relevant business relationships through the exchange of new, expert and high-quality information within like-minded communities in real time, between companies and with their suppliers, customers and also their peers.Research limitations/implicationsAs this study covered five countries, further comparative research on the use of Twitter in the B2B context is called for. Further investigation of the formalisation of social media strategies and return on investment for social media marketing efforts is also warranted.Practical implicationsThis research highlights the business relationship building capacity of Twitter as it enables customer and peer conversations that eventually support the development of product and service innovations. Twitter has the capacity for marketers to inform and engage customers and peers in their networks on wider topics thereby building the brand of the individual users and their companies simultaneously.Originality/valueThis study focuses on interactions at the individual level illustrating that Twitter is used for both customer and peer interactions that can lead to the sourcing of ideas, knowledge and ultimately innovation. The study is novel in its methodological approach of combining structured interviews and text mining that found the topics of the interviewees' tweets aligned with their interview responses.

Virtual expertise is a critical component of telehealth projects and it needs to be effectively managed if telehealth is to deliver on its potential. There are many issues within telehealth that relate to the management of knowledge, and we identify and classify these using a range of papers on the topic. We introduce a virtual expertise platform that provides basic building blocks for effect-leveraging of expertise in this domain. The platform includes management directives and goals, a collaborative culture, an appropriate information and communication technology platform, a knowledge management layer, and a tools or application layer that interact to facilitate knowledge sharing, and ultimately improve patient care. We also emphasize how social media tools can be used as part of the tools layer to improve virtual knowledge sharing before and after telehealth events.

The transaction of business via the Web is becoming an imperative for organizations aiming at improving their competitiveness. The Web-based commerce applications allow organizations to access potential customers and suppliers via the Internet. Expected benefits include: expanded marketplaces, potential cost reductions, productivity improvements, customization of products and services, 24-hour trading and information exchange, and management (McIvor & Humphreys, 2004; Raisinghani et al., 2005). This expansion of Web based commerce has led to growing research into the impact of investments made by organisations in this field (Raisinghani et al., 2005).

Technology increasingly pervades the business world and society generally. According to Walters (2004, p. 219) “markets have globalized, technology has become all embracing, and relationships with suppliers, customers, and competitors are undergoing constant change.” These developments potentially raise considerable opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)1 to enter into the global marketplace and form “partnerships” including alliances, networks, and collaborative commerce (c-commerce) (Jarrett, 1998). Though exemplars of c-commerce exist in Australia, it has not been widely adopted by SME’s. Generally, Australian SMEs have been slow to adopt any form of electronic commerce. The primary reason given for lack of adoption amongst many small businesses is that they see no real benefit in having a Web presence, that is they perceive their businesses to be too small, or they had not factored in the on going maintenance of Web pages (ABS, 2003; van Beveren & Thomson, 2002). Fear of the unknown and lack of skills have also been suggested as reasons why the uptake of technology is less for small businesses (Barry & Milner, 2002; Darch & Lucas, 2002). If firms have been slow to embrace e-commerce, then it could explain the slow uptake of c-commerce. This article looks beyond e-commerce and suggests framework to explain c-commerce adoption.