Dilanjan Seneviratne Co-Authors a Teaching Case on Yohani's Rise
Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol. 52, pages 500 to 517 | DOI 10.17705/1CAIS.05220 | five authors from Southern Cross University, the University of Arkansas, Pettah Effect and Theewra Worldwide
On 2 February 2023, Communications of the Association for Information Systems published Shooting 'Yohani' to Global Stardom: A Teaching Case of Social Media Strategy of a Top-10 YouTuber, with Dilanjan Seneviratne among its five authors. The case appears in Volume 52 of the peer-reviewed journal, pages 500 to 517, under DOI 10.17705/1CAIS.05220.
The authors, in order:
Mekhala Egodawele: Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, Southern Cross University
Darshana Sedera: Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, Southern Cross University
Varun Grover: Walton School of Business, University of Arkansas
Dilanjan Seneviratne: Pettah Effect
Banura Sooriyapperuma: Theewra Worldwide Pvt Ltd
The case follows Yohani from YouTube covers to Manike Mage Hithe, which reached YouTube's global Top 10 in September 2021. It draws on interviews with executives at her record label and her creative company: Pettah Effect and Theewra, the two businesses Dilanjan and Sooriyapperuma represented on the paper.
Four themes run through it:
Strategy: the role of social media strategy for modern businesses and entrepreneurs.
Hygiene: the practices needed to manage social media responsibly.
Analytics: how data informed deliberate business decisions.
Platforms: how several platforms were combined within technological, geographic, financial and social constraints.
The case is written for undergraduate and postgraduate students on contemporary information systems management courses. It is indexed on the Southern Cross University research portal and on CORE.
It was part of a wider body of research. The same team presented A Chart-buster YouTuber's Cruise to Stardom: The Role of Social Media Configuration in Digital Branding Strategy at the International Conference on Information Systems in 2022. Mekhala Egodawele's Masters thesis, Exploring the Role of Resources in Digital Transformation Initiatives, submitted to Southern Cross University in August 2023 (DOI 10.25918/thesis.328), used Pettah Effect and Theewra Worldwide as case organisations, drawing on interviews with Dilanjan as Pettah Effect's co-founder and A&R director.
Publication came while Dilanjan's affiliation was still Pettah Effect. He founded Outright Play in 2024.
