| المستخلص: |
The aim of this research is to evaluate the impact of online social networks on the generation of entrepreneurial ideas and to determine whether the use of “online” social networks affects the idea generation process differently than traditional “offline” social networks in Egypt. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from two separate nascent entrepreneurial populations via email. Two separate populations will be surveyed for this research. The first population is the target of much of the nascent entrepreneurial research, undergraduate students in Business departments in four private universities, which are (American University in Cairo (AUC), Modem Science and Art University (MSA), German University in Cairo (GUC) and Misr University for Science & Technology (MUST). The second population studied is intended to capture a broader age range of adults with a variety of interests and backgrounds, those taking continuing education classes at business studies division in School of Continuing Education- American University in Cairo (AUC), and MBA Program studies in Arab Academy for Science, Tech.& Maritime Transport .The reasons behind choosing these populations are that the business studies division tends to attract individuals seeking skills and knowledge associated with starting a business, and the current position of the researchers provided the opportunity to obtain good response rate from the sample populations. The researchers used systematic sample. Descriptive statistics, test of means, t-test, regression, and correlation were used for data analysis. The findings showed that commencing nascent entrepreneurs using online social network websites identify more entrepreneurial ideas than others who do not use online social network websites. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed and future research directions are presented.
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