Digital Entrepreneurship in the Global South How Entrepreneurs Overcome Contextual Challenges in their Formation of Entrepreneurial Identity Through Narrative Identity Work on Social Media

The mediatization of society has led to the global transformation of commercial and socio-cultural institutions. Most importantly it has revolutionized the ways in which labor is enacted. As a result, an increase of technological phenomena such as digital entrepreneurship has occurred. Because of this, researchers in the entrepreneurship field are increasingly calling for more theoretical developments regarding the digitalization of entrepreneurship and how digital technologies have changed entrepreneurial processes, particularly in regard to social media and narrative identity work. The limited current theories and studies of these natures tend to take on more of a western emphasis, however. Thus, focusing specifically on the Global South, the aim of this thesis is to build a new theoretical perspective for understanding the phenomenon of digital entrepreneurship in the Global South. The focus in particular is to address, describe and reflect on the ways in which entrepreneurs in the Global South develop their entrepreneurial identity through (narrative) identity work on social media. Accordingly, the main research question of this study is: How do digital entrepreneurs in the Global South develop their entrepreneurial identity using social media and narrative identity work? Because social contexts play a significant role in entrepreneurial identity formation as well as the fact that theories on entrepreneurial contexts are also sought, in addition to the main research avenue, social contexts are also taken into consideration and is a sub focus of this study. To achieve the main and sub focus of this thesis a qualitative methodology was employed. 10 entrepreneurs from the Global South participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews and the data gathered was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that through the development of their entrepreneurial role, entrepreneurs in the Global South form their entrepreneurial identity by using different narrative identity work strategies on different social media to pursue digital opportunities. Moreover, the findings also revealed that despite resource scarcity, limited entrepreneurial ecosystems, and minimal support and empowerment from local governments, digital entrepreneurship in the Global South enables economic development, urbanization, personal development and emancipation. The thesis concludes with social and practical recommendations as well as suggestions for future research.