Streamers: the new wave of digital entrepreneurship? Extant corpus and research agenda

Abstract

• Streaming as “amateur” media production merges elements of work and play. • Research interest in this topic has increased significantly during the last decade. • Research increasingly sees video content creation as creative entrepreneurial work. • Theoretical understanding is fragmented and requires further development. • More research on the organizational and economical aspects is required. Video content creation by “amateur” private users has taken on professional (i.e. work) characteristics. The emergence of user-centric video sharing services (e.g. YouTube, Twitch, Mixer) has set the scene for the rise of micro-celebrities and influencers making video content creation a valuable source of income. The development of occupational and commercial elements within the activity has gained a significant amount of attention from the mainstream media but also from academic research. This paper presents a literature review that aims to examine the nature of the available literature (75 articles) on the occupational characteristics of video content creation. The literature review examines the development of research and terminology of this topic, the theoretical and conceptual frameworks utilized in the examined research, and how the elements of work have been examined and perceived in the examined literature. The results reveal an ongoing development of entrepreneurial aspects in the activity and highlight the need for further research on video content creation in a work context.