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The transformational journey of YouTube entrepreneurs: a few strands of evidence from an emerging economy

Senthilkumaran Piramanaygam (Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India)
Kuan-Huei Lee (Business, Communication and Design Cluster, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore, Singapore)
Rajasekharan Pillai K (Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India)
Saurabh Kumar Dixit (Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India)

Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies

ISSN: 2053-4604

Article publication date: 19 December 2024

42

Abstract

Purpose

Ubiquitous penetration of the internet fuelled by the interactive nature of digital media has created a new genre of entrepreneurs who leverage social media to propel their businesses. This study aims to explore the transformation of one such digital entrepreneurial cohort: Food YouTubers (YTs), who have metamorphosed from being mere content creators to entrepreneurs in the context of an emerging economy.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors invoke a qualitative interpretive phenomenological approach to unravel the entrepreneurial transition process. A combination of personal interviews and open-ended surveys is used to collect relevant data from 14 digital entrepreneurs. The transcripts are analysed to extract meaningful codes and themes.

Findings

The study shows that these entrepreneurs’ innovativeness and readiness to meet the real-time demands of their customers made their ventures a runaway success. This is the first study to target food YTs in India, an emerging economy. While the study is exploratory in nature, it provides basic insights into the transition of a novel group of influencers into entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to analyse the transition of YouTube influencers into entrepreneurs in emerging economies, as it relies more on entrepreneurial activities for their economic and social well-being.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors extend their heartfelt gratitude to YouTuber Entrepreneurs who generously participated in and supported this study. All authors appreciate their pioneering efforts and wish them great success.

Funding: The authors declare that no financial support or funding was received for conducting this research.

Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Citation

Piramanaygam, S., Lee, K.-H., Pillai K, R. and Dixit, S.K. (2024), "The transformational journey of YouTube entrepreneurs: a few strands of evidence from an emerging economy", Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-05-2024-0203

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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