**4.1 Research philosophy and design**

This research is an autoethnographic research which follows an interpretivist philosophy. The interpretivist philosophy is suitable for this research as it views knowledge as being socially constructed through language, consciousness and shared meaning [27]. Interpretivist philosophy is in line with autoethnographic research. It's a form of research, writing and method that connects the autobiographical and personal to the cultural and social [28]. Cunliffe [29] insists that autoethnography is not a method but a methodology. This means that autoethnography is more than techniques of data collection and analysis.

Wall [30] suggests that autoethnography draws on personal experience that extends to provide insights on a social behavior making it reflexive and better suited to explain social phenomenon since it acknowledges an inextricable link between personal and the wider context. Thus, autoethnography research provides means of organizing reflection on everyday life as experienced by researchers [31]. Furthermore, autoethnography is suitable for this research because it is enactive as it is concerned with material and physical domain that relates to the researcher domain of research (ibid). Therefore, autoethnography is beneficial for the research as it offers opportunity for making latent and tacit knowledge ordinary. This is because personal experience removes the access boundary of generating knowledge on the interdependencies between researched phenomenon being enacted and researchers. Therefore, despite autoethnography research being in line with interpretivist philosophy it is also in line with practice theory and the research phenomenon of understanding how the social media ecosystem enacts strategy of small business.

## **4.2 Case description and analysis**

This research draws from my personal experience of establishing an online shop on ETSY platform. My shop sells handmade crafts from Africa with the main source being Ghana. My business started in 2018. The business significantly depends on several social media platforms, which create an ecosystem that shape the strategy of my business. I started the shop while in the UK and I continue to manage it from Tanzania. This transition has offered me a good experience of navigating/conducting business between developed and developing countries. My data is a recollection of my personal experience and reflection.

The analysis of my reflection follows a reflexive thematic approach, which is considered a fully qualitative approach [32]. Reflexive approach is centred on deep engagement, commitment and rigor as it emphasizes meaning as contextual or situated, reality or realities as multiple and researcher subjectivity as not just valid but a resource [33]. In addition, Braun et al. [32] suggest in a reflexive analysis a researcher becomes a storyteller, actively engaged in interpreting data through the lens of their own cultural membership, social positioning, theoretical assumptions, ideological commitments and their scholarly knowledge.

The finding of this research is drawn from my personal experience, which can make it hard to generalize the results. Nevertheless, Halkier [23] suggests that it is possible to generalize but with a change on how we view generalizability.

First generalizability should be specific and bound by context rather than taking it as universal. Second, generalizability must attempt to present dynamism, uncertainties, conflicts and complexities that constitute various overlapping context and knowledge production processes (ibid). Thus, generalizability is not supposed to produce stable representations but possibilities and instability [34]. This form of generalizability can be done by positioning as a way of drawing inferences on narratives and discourses to enable representation of dynamics that constitute social construction of things, relationship and performances [23]. Hence this type of analysis is suitable to analyze practice which is performative of social action making it a suitable method for understanding how social media ecosystem enacts strategy for small businesses like mine.
