Online Content Creators’ and Viewers’ Interdependent Journeys

The creator economy features a pertinent, growing role of content creators and -viewers, revealing this service sub-sector’s rising economic, and strategic, contribution. In parallel, though the customer/stakeholder journey concepts are gaining traction, little is known about the interdependence characterizing online content creators’ and viewers’ (users’) engagement through their respective role-related journeys, as, therefore, explored further in this article. Building on prior literature, we argue that the unfolding of a content viewer’s journey with a creator’s content is fueled by the former’s engagement in their content-related interactions, in turn also impacting the content creator’s journey. To explore these issues, we adopt interdependence theory’s core interactional tenets (i.e., perceived interaction outcomes [i.e., costs/rewards], comparison level, and comparison level for alternatives) and theorize regarding their respective effect on viewers’ journey-based content engagement. We posit that viewers’ engagement also impacts the content creator’s journey, as summarized in a set of Propositions. Overall, the Propositions illustrate how interdependence theory-informed interactional tenets affect content viewers’ and creators’ interdependent role-related journeys, offering novel insight.