How Does Social Media Influence College Students to Recognize Entrepreneurial Opportunities? - Evidence from China

The rapid development of information technology is having a profound impact on college students' entrepreneurial behavior,and accurately recognize entrepreneurial opportunities will affect the success or failure of individual entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to explore if and how social media influences college students to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities. A systematic review of relevant research results including social media in the field of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship of college students, etc., this paper puts forward five dimensions and six hypotheses, including entrepreneurial alertness, priori knowledge, social capital, entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and social media. A total of 508 valid questionnaires were obtained by designing questionnaires, organizing surveys, and screening data for college students. Through the reliability and validity test, correlation analysis, and hypothesis test analysis of the returned questionnaire data, all six hypotheses were verified. The empirical analysis shows that social media can significantly affect the recognition of entrepreneurial opportunities for college entrepreneurs. priori knowledge and entrepreneurial alertness play a mediating role and a moderating role respectively in this process. Meanwhile, priori knowledge plays a significant positive role in promoting entrepreneurial vigilance. Social capital has a direct and positive impact on college students' entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, and plays a moderating role in the impact of social media on college students' entrepreneurial opportunity recognition.