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Relationship Cultivation and Social Capital: Female Transnational Entrepreneurs’ Relationship-Based Communication on Social Media

ABSTRACT Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from relationship management theory, social capital theory, and transnational entrepreneurship literature, this study explores how Korean-American female transnational entrepreneurs (FTEs) cultivate relationships with their publics and identify and build social capital on social media. In-depth interviews with 16 Korean American FTEs who are social media-based, small-business owners in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley revealed that FTEs identified customers, business partners, and social media influencers as their key publics. Findings also revealed that in addition to FTEs’ unique practices of relationship cultivation strategies identified in existing literature (e.g., networking, sharing tasks, being unconditionally supportive, saying win–win or no deal), new strategies (e.g., sharing identity and interest, proactive outreach, and focusing on social over parasocial relationships) were also discovered. FTEs had the essential need for bonding social capital with the supplement of bridging social capital garnered on social media. Findings also showed the transnational nature of structural and relational social capital, as well as the importance of cultural heritage in cognitive social capital. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.