1. Introduction

For data processing in Twitter, two essential techniques can be considered, the first called association of terms and the second related to the analysis of sentiments, particularly the first of them has an approach that allows finding syntagmatic relationships between words or terms (^{Correia et al., 2018}). Sentiment analysis is an essential field within data mining and deals mainly with sentimental content (^{Pandey et al., 2017}). Sentiment analysis with Twitter data is a topic of interest because, on Twitter, people express their feelings (^{Geetha et al., 2017}).

On the other hand, entrepreneurship is a multilevel knowledge phenomenon (^{Audretsch et al., 2020}). Hence, it is argued that proper knowledge management is a significant factor (^{Durst & Runar-Edvardsson, 2012}). The cognitive elements are a crucial resource (^{Sommer & Haug, 2011}) for which entrepreneurship experiences should be studied. They promote the development of knowledge management at a high level (^{Woźniak & Wereda, 2020}).

This research analyzes the crisis communication during the crisis in popular business hashtags on Twitter, using situational crisis communication and the networked crisis communication theories. The results of this study provide an understanding of communication in crisis in enterprises, which undoubtedly contributes to the literature since it allows the development of prevention plans in times of crisis and the consolidation of communication strategies for the crisis. Since it becomes very relevant to know the communication in social networks during the time of entrepreneurship crisis, it is possible to understand this population and their feelings in non-normal periods.

The present study sets the following objectives: (i) to identify the topics discussed in the entrepreneurship crisis communication on Twitter hashtags during the COVID-19 pandemic and (ii) to establish the sentiment of text in entrepreneurship crisis communication on Twitter hashtags during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 presents the arguments that support the study objectives. Section 3 contains a description of the methodology. Section 4 presents the results, and the final section synthesizes and discusses the main findings and describes their practical implications and future lines of research.

2. Theoretical background

Situational crisis communication theory argues that organizations can use communication strategies during crises. These strategies depend on the type of crisis, the situation, and the organization's responsibility (^{Coombs, 2015}). This theory tries to establish response strategies to crises with positive results for the organization in the public perception of the crisis and the attitude towards the organization to protect its reputation and reduce adverse effects (^{Coombs, 2007}; ^{Coombs, 2014}).

During crises, the strategic answer is the words and actions that organizations can take in crisis (^{Coombs, 2007}). In crises, when there is a minimum responsibility of the organization, the appropriate communication strategies are the instructions and adjustment of information to achieve positive results for the organization, such as protecting its reputation and reducing adverse effects (^{Coombs, 2015}; ^{Coombs, 2017}).

To ^{Schultz et al. (2011)} , the consumer has different media types in social media in the context of different responses to crises they could have. So also, ^{Schultz et al. (2011)} and ^{Utz et al. (2013)} mention how social networks generate different responses that influence people's emotions.

According to the theory of planned behavior (^{Ajzen, 1991}), personal attitude specifies how people react to certain situations and environmental influences. Usually, the behavior leads to a positive or negative attitude (^{Lechuga-Sancho et al., 2020}). The perception of people's control influences business behaviors (^{Asante & Affum-Osei, 2019}). The literature highlights that entrepreneurs generally try to achieve better results, recognize and control changes, and overcome difficulties (^{Mahmood et al., 2020}).

For ^{Wennberg et al. (2016)} , entrepreneurs whose businesses face survival threats opt for growth rather than reducing losses. The reasons for failure can help to indirectly identify the crucial skills necessary to prevent it (^{Thom, 2016}). It is necessary to analyze success and failure factors to create a sustained competitive advantage (^{Yoon et al., 2019}) since the fear of failure always demotivates (^{Morgan & Sisak, 2016}).

Despite many studies in the field, there needs to be more uniformity in research results to indicate which situational factors differentiate entrepreneurial Success and failure (^{Mcneil & Burgar, 1991}). Because of this cause, exist a need for research on the relationship between Success and failure in entrepreneurship (^{Kerrigan et al., 2020}).

According to ^{Pardo & Alfonso (2017)} , the main failures of ventures are due to financial, organizational, external environment, and marketing causes. One of the most influential subtopics is legal and economic instability. Likewise, ^{Grandy et al. (2020)} show that the survival of SMEs during the C-19 pandemic depends on the transition these companies have toward digital services. The experience has generated learning to face survival (^{Majláth et al., 2019}). In their study, ^{Grandy et al. (2020)} mentioned that the gaps between men and women entrepreneurs are quite marked in the environment. The latter do not have the same opportunities and benefits as men do. So, gender has a significant impact on entrepreneurship.

Global crises, whether pandemics or epidemics, create challenges for people. They generate changes in lifestyles, people's thinking, how they carry out transactions, and how they organize. The crisis caused by COVID-19 has caused damage to global supply chains and disrupted businesses and personal networks (^{Zahra, 2021}).

Conditions are no longer favorable for entrepreneurs when implementing a retrospective in the context experienced before the pandemic, mainly because of markets and their varying conditions. Also, entrepreneurs' advisory, guidance, and support services often need to be appropriately directed (^{Chaves-Maza & Fedriani-Martel, 2020}).

On the other hand, ^{Bărbulescu et al. (2021)} carried out a test. They determined that the profile of successful entrepreneurs in the context of COVID-19 is divided into courage, creativity, experience, and perseverance as fundamental pillars, identifying that many subjects consider themselves creative and courageous but with a feeling of little experience and desire to succeed.

Twitter hashtags concentrate communities that exchange messages, and collecting Twitter data through popular entrepreneurial hashtags is an appropriate means to examine the communication of pandemic crises such as COVID-19. Previous studies such as ^{Kumar & Rehan (2021)} and ^{Lynn et al. (2020)} mention the importance of data from hashtags and the analysis based on the issues that concern them.

The literature so far guides us in the importance of knowledge communication in times of crisis and the relevance of good management of it in companies to have projection with their environment and their market to consolidate and avoid adverse effects in times of challenges (^{Coombs, 2007}; ^{Coombs, 2014}), management that is very relevant in social networks to influence the emotions of interest groups (^{Schultz et al., 2011}; ^{Utz et al., 2013}) so that they can consolidate appropriate strategies at times that challenge the entrepreneur.

However, until now, the literature has not specified the communication of entrepreneurs in social networks in times of crisis and the feelings that derive from these investigations; however, the literature proposes a sequence of orientations that allow this study to be carried out and the relevance of its scope (figure 1).

RQ1. Which topics are discussed in entrepreneur crisis communication during the crisis period in Twitter hashtags?

RQ2. What is the sentiment of the texts in the entrepreneurship crisis communication crisis period in Twitter hashtags?

Figure 1 The sequence of orientations indicated by the literature prior to this study 

To date, no academic studies have addressed crisis communication about entrepreneurship in Twitter hashtags during the crisis period. Therefore, considering this research gap, this study poses the following research questions.

3. Methodology

4. Results

The results of the association of terms are presented in Table 3. First, the percentage of tweets that do not coincide with the initial search terms (entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs) is shown. Second, the 'Matches' column contains tweets that do match the initial search terms (entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs). Third, the 'Total' column is intended to reflect the number of tweets that contain the term. Fourth, the difference in the z-ratio is presented in the column 'DiffPZ .'Fourth, for relationships that have been meaningful for the Chisq test, the data will be displayed in the column 'Sig.'

Table 3 shows the topics discussed in the crisis communication on entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Twitter hashtags. The terms were "startups,” "business," “success,” “small business,” “motivation,” “business owner,” “read,” “leadership,” “COVID-19”, and "online business,” which answers the question RQ1 Which topics are discussed in crisis communication about entrepreneurs during crisis time in Twitter hashtags?.

The identification of the topics allows us to visualize the presence that the entrepreneurs had in the social network Twitter, mainly when mentions associated with their field were made, where topics such as Success, leadership, and online businesses stand out, which leads us to think about the importance that had the incorporation of digital strategies in the ventures.

Figure 2 shows a dendrogram of clusters, a hierarchical classification of the discussion topics from Table 1. In it, we can see how the support of the topics addressed by the entrepreneurs is found in the hustle and bustle, life, and the economy as mentions that support the topics in question.

Figure 2 Clusters Dendrogram 

The five words associated with each topic of discussion and the users' perceptions expressed in the tweets are presented in Table 4. These perceptions are expressed in need of attention for entrepreneurship in technology, innovation, review of the economy, motivation for the entrepreneur, ideas for Success in entrepreneurship, changes in commerce strategies, education for entrepreneurs, products, and online businesses during the pandemic crisis. Additionally, it is observed that the perceptions of Twitter users focus on the impact on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Table 5 shows the text sentiment analysis of each topic used. It is observed that the topics entrepreneurship, reading, money, online business, business strategy, new business, business plan, and inspiration have sentiment-negative text, showing situations of uncertainty, doubt, or unpleasantness. An answer is provided to RQ2 what is the text sentiment in the crisis communication on entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Twitter hashtags, with the text sentiment in Table 5.

The results show us the themes and associations of feeling that entrepreneurs have in their communication through social networks, responding to our research questions, which leads to guiding the trends of this population when communicating in times of crisis.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

The objectives of this study were: (i) to identify which topics are discussed in the crisis communication about entrepreneurship during crisis time in the Twitter hashtags and (ii) to establish what is the sentiment of the text in the crisis communication about entrepreneurship during crisis time in the Twitter hashtags.

We must first mention that the results show that the data collected and processed through big data techniques, such as term association techniques and sentiment analysis, can obtain information; it allowed us to know the characteristics of crisis communication during times of crisis in the communications of entrepreneurs. The above is possible using the theory of situational crisis communication (^{Coombs, 2007}; ^{Coombs, 2014}); responses or communication strategies of companies and entrepreneurs are observed depending on the type of crisis (Business, Success, COVID-19, Innovation, Products, Economy, Life) and the crisis perceived by each organization or user.

This crisis communication can also be examined using the theory of network crisis communication (^{Schultz et al., 2011}; ^{Utz et al., 2013}). This is an interactive communication with multiple voices of organizations, the public, and consumers, receiving and sending crisis communication through the web. According to this theory, different responses can be generated, which can be influenced by the medium, in this case, Twitter. Twitter is considered an information hub, especially in disasters. It also influences the participants' own emotions in crisis communication.

In the second place, the results show the topics of discussion and the sentiments of the messages, which show a global approach to crisis communication in enterprises during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most discussed topics were "start-ups,” “business,” “success,” “small business,” “motivation,” “business owner,” “read,” “leadership,” “COVID-19”, “online business,” among other topics, and the perceptions that users express on Twitter about these terms according to Table 4 reflect the need for care undertakings during the crisis of the pandemic in technology, innovation, the review of the economy, motivation for the entrepreneur, ideas of how to exit ahead in the crisis and how to be successful in entrepreneurship, the needs of changes in strategies for commerce, education for entrepreneurs, products and online businesses. In addition, it is observed that the perceptions of Twitter users focus on the impact on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The results show that this crisis communication reinforces what was mentioned by ^{Wennberg et al. (2016)} . They ascertain that entrepreneurs seek to restore performance instead of losses when they observe threats to survival. Additionally, authors such as ^{Majláth et al. (2019)} have pointed out that entrepreneurs design better survival strategies when they learn due to challenging times or when they can see the experiences of others. Communication reflects the pandemic as a threat to entrepreneurship and focuses on finding ways and means for businesses to continue or survive. This reinforces the theory that entrepreneurs have courage, perseverance, and a capacity for risk (^{Bărbulescu et al., 2021}). The results presented in table 4 show entrepreneurs with a predisposition to overcome the pandemic's difficulties (^{Mahmood et al., 2020}). They show the situation they are going through and identify in communication the skills, knowledge, means, and issues needed to overcome difficulties (^{Thom, 2016}). One such issue is openness to digital business or digital strategies, which is vital for the survival of ventures (^{Grandy et al., 2020}).

Communication on the topics used also reflects doubts and uncertainty about the situation during the pandemic, which is in line with ^{Chaves-Maza & Fedriani-Martel (2020)} . The authors explain that market conditions could have been more favorable for entrepreneurs before the pandemic due to the varying conditions and the advisory, guidance, and support services.

Third, and as far as the text, sentiment analysis shows a difference between the topics indicating that not every feeling is perceived with the same intensity. Some topics have negative sentiments, such as reading, money, online business, business strategy, new business, plan business, and inspiration, which are the topics that show situations of uncertainty, doubt, or unpleasant situations.

The literature shows the need to understand better the causes of these successes and failures of entrepreneurship (^{Kerrigan et al., 2020}). Entrepreneurs create better strategies to survive difficult times (^{Majláth et al., 2019}). Nevertheless, there is a gap in the literature on the type of strategies, the means used to create them, and their generation to survive the difficult times during the pandemic. The study contributes this way to the theories about entrepreneurship success and failure. It shows that crisis communication focuses on strategies to communicate elements of a solution. They concentrate on skills, knowledge, means, and aspects needed to overcome the difficulties of the undertakings due to the impact of the pandemic, in addition to the means used by Twitter, which is recognized as an effective means to communicate news and disasters. It is also a means to communicate strategies of solutions for start-ups during a pandemic crisis.

The study contributes to the literature on the theory of situational crisis communication in start-ups (^{Coombs, 2007}; ^{Coombs, 2014}) with the knowledge of the characteristics of crisis communication in popular hashtags about entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were identified through the topics of discussion found and the strategies to communicate elements of solutions for the ventures, and the assessment of the sentiment expressed in the messages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study also contributes to the literature on crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter from the recipient's perspective, as there is a gap in the literature on crisis communication on social networks that can facilitate responses from multiple voices of organizations and the public or consumers (^{Liu & Fraustino, 2016}; ^{Utz et al., 2013}).

In conclusion, the development of crisis response strategies aims to align the relationships of the interested parties according to what makes them agree or disagree, coinciding with the situational crisis communication theory (^{Coombs, 2007}; ^{Coombs, 2014}) and examining the discussion topics of entrepreneurs, it is possible to perceive the main orientation issues of this population that is so relevant to society, as well as the appropriate communication strategies that protect the reputation of the organizations and reduce adverse effects in line with what has been mentioned literature (^{Coombs, 2015}; ^{Coombs, 2017}).

Derived from the above and one of the most mentioned topics, "online business," positioning in social networks becomes relevant and essential for companies (^{Grandy et al., 2020}). Just as the prioritization of issues and feelings also becomes relevant to align strategic actions that guide the best performance of companies and the impact on their environment so that work can be done creatively, coinciding with the requirements mentioned by ^{Bărbulescu et al. (2021)} , but considering the issues and concerns using hashtags (^{Kumar & Rehan, 2021}; ^{Lynn et al., 2020}), which undoubtedly guide the entrepreneur and their requirements.

The study has implications for the theories of Success and failure of entrepreneurship. The above contributes to closing the gap on the strategies to survive during the pandemic's challenging times, how they are generated, and the means used to create them. It shows that due to the qualities of entrepreneurs, crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic focuses on the crisis and the strategies to communicate the solution elements. They mention the skills, knowledge, means, and issues needed to overcome the difficulties enterprises face due to the impact of the pandemic. Also, it relates the use of Twitter as an effective means to communicate elements of the solution in enterprises to the pandemic crisis.

The study has theoretical implications in the Situational Crisis Communication Theory on entrepreneurship (^{Coombs, 2007}; ^{Coombs, 2014}), given that it provides knowledge about the characteristics of crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic within the discussion topics of entrepreneurship hashtags. It also looks at the assessment of the different sentiments in each topic of discussion. The study also contributes to the Network Crisis Communication Theory (^{Schultz et al., 2011}; ^{Utz et al., 2013}) because it presents evidence about communication on Twitter in a network environment with multiple voices of organizations, the public, or consumers. Also, it contributes from the receiver's perspective since there needs to be more literature on crisis communication in social networks that can facilitate responses from multiple voices of organizations and the public or consumers (^{Liu & Fraustino, 2016}; ^{Utz et al., 2013}).

This research has been practiced for actors who accompany and support entrepreneurs who, in crisis, can use timely response strategies to avoid affectations in enterprises in a way that contributes to creativity and timely attention to crises that avoid economic losses and adverse consequences crises such as the pandemic.

Additionally, it urges the importance of strengthening online business and its demands for optimal management in serving the current and potential market. The research also has practical implications for developing pandemic crisis prevention plans.

The data's temporality limits the study during May and June 2020. Future research is suggested to analyze the data from Twitter to examine changes in the behavior of business clients, businesses' performance, and their scope in the post-health emergency stage.