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

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.