Influential entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial influencers: are they two sides of the same coin?

ABSTRACT

Throughout time, there have been influencers who possess the power to affect decisions of others, and this power has become particularly evident in the current multibilliondollar marketplace of influencer marketing. Practitioners and scholars are focusing on the power of social media to affect change, and the popular press has begun to refer to entrepreneurs as influencers and influencers as entrepreneurs. As such, the current research examines the power of influence in terms of influential entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial influencers. Influential entrepreneurs have the power to encourage others to believe in themselves and to ignite passion for personal success, while also garnering support for their own ventures. Entrepreneurial influencers generally begin as marketing influencers who develop a following on a digital platform and then begin to build their own entrepreneurial endeavors by promoting to their followers. We contribute to the entrepreneurial marketing literature by bringing together similar, yet disparate, research to understand people identified as both influencers and entrepreneurs and suggest that influential entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial influencers are not two sides of the same coin. While both possess characteristics of attractiveness and the ability to connect people and communities, findings suggest that influential entrepreneurs are perceived as more credible than entrepreneurial influencers. While entrepreneurial influencers are enabled by external products or brands for which they are promoting, influential entrepreneurs are enabled by the strength of their own personal brands that created a product offering.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Mary Kay Inc.