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This study aimed to understand better what makes esports fans engage with streamers' live-streaming of esports gameplay. This study used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and additionally adopted streamer identification and esports game identification as moderating variables.

Data were collected from streamers' esports content streaming viewers over 18 years of age using an online survey in Amazon M-Turk (N = 307). Based on past esports live-streaming weekly watching hours, which range from 1 to 45 h, the participants were divided into lower (n = 152) and higher (n = 155) frequency groups. PLS-SEM and bootstrapping techniques were used to test the moderated mediation relationships among the constructs.

This study found a negative moderating effect of past watching experience on the relationship between attitudes and behavioral intention, and it positively moderated the path between perceived behavioral control and behavioral intention. Also, it was found statistically significant direct impacts of streamer identification (STI) and esports game identification (EGI) on attitude and subjective norms. While the indirect impact of STI on behavioral intention through attitude was statistically significant, there were no significant indirect impacts of EGI on attitude and behavioral intention through subjective norms.

Theoretically, this study extends the TPB model by exploring the two identifications (i.e. streamers and esports games) as antecedents of the focal TPB factors (i.e. attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control) and the moderating effect of prior experience based on high/low weekly watching frequencies. Practically, content creators of esports live-streaming and live-streaming platform managers can use the study’s findings to develop strategies to nurture their current and future viewership.

Video game streaming (VGS) is emerging as an extremely popular, highly interactive, inordinately subscribed and very dynamic form of digital media. Incorporated environmental elements, gratifications and user pre-existing attitudes in VGS, this paper presents the development of an extended model of uses and gratification theory (EUGT) for predicting users' behavior in novel technological context.

The proposed model was empirically tested in VGS context due to its popularity, interactivity and relevance. Data collected from 308 VGS users and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to assess the hypotheses. Multi-model comparison technique was used to assess the explanatory power of EUGT.

The findings confirmed three significant types elements in determining VGS viewers' engagement, including gratifications (e.g. involvement), environmental cues (e.g. medium appeal) and user predispositions (e.g. pre-existing attitudes). The results revealed that emerging technologies provide potential opportunities for new motives and gratifications, and highlighted the significant of pre-existing attitudes as a mediator in the gratification-uses link.

This study is one of its kind in tackling the criticism on UGT of considering media users too rational or active. The study achieved this objective by considering environmental impacts on user behavior which is largely ignored in recent UGT studies. Also, by incorporating users pre-existing attitudes into UGT framework, this study conceptualized and empirically verified the higher explanatory power of EUGT through a novel multi-modal approach in VGS. Compared to other rival models, EUGS provides a more robust explanation of users' behavior. The findings contribute to the literature of UGT, VGS and users' engagement.

The goal of this study is to examine the factors (e.g. enjoyment, skills, challenge, telepresence and flow) that influence players’ purchase intention toward Dota 2 virtual in-game as well as examine the effect of flow toward purchase intention of Dota 2 through the critical mechanism (i.e. continuous intention). Notably, the analysis of the moderating role of enjoyment of buying on the relation of (a) flow and purchase intention of Dota 2 in-game, as well as (b) between flow continuous intention and finally (c) between continuous intention purchase intention of Dota 2.

The data were gained from 331 users using Google Forms and posted to respondents on social media platforms and forums such as Facebook and Reddit, as these websites have the closest reach to gamers.

The study revealed that enjoyment, skill, challenge and telepresence have a positive effect on flow. Also, the flow was significantly related to purchase intention. The continuous intention has significantly mediated the relationship between flow and purchase intention. Importantly, this study found that the moderating role of buying enjoyment increases the relationship between flow and purchase intention (H7a) and between continuous intention and purchase intention (H7c). In contrast, the moderating role of buying enjoyment on the relationship between flow and continuous intention (H7b) was not supported. Hence, this study sheds a new light on the notable Dota 2 in-game and continuous intention purchase intention of the users.

In response, this study's main research question can be highlighted on testing how enjoyment, skills, challenge, telepresence, in-game virtual items influence purchasing intention when the enjoyment of buying moderates the proposed relationship? Therefore, this study aims to examine the significant elements like enjoyment, skills, challenge telepresence toward flow, and subsequently, the effect of flow toward purchase intention of Dota 2 in-game through continuous intention as a key mechanism which is urgently needed to minimize the gap in-game virtual items literature. Significantly, this study also intends to explore the contingent role of enjoyment of buying on the relation of flow and purchase intention of Dota-2 in-game, as well as between flow and continuous intention and finally between continuous intention and purchase intention.

This study aims to illuminate Turkish gen Z players’ intention to make in-game purchases based on stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model and uncover the distinctive role of gender.

Six hundred and ninety-six young players were included in the research who are aged 12 to 29 in Istanbul, Türkiye. Measurement validity was checked via principal component and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural model testing, mediation and multigroup analysis were conducted to test relationships among latent constructs.

The study revealed enjoyment, perceived attractiveness and economic value were positively associated with gamer satisfaction, though connectedness was not. In addition, gamer satisfaction positively affected loyalty and loyalty predicted in-game purchase intention. On the other hand, the magnitude of enjoyment-gamer satisfaction path was greater in female players than in males. However, the effect sizes of perceived attractiveness and economic value on gamer satisfaction were larger in males than in females.

The research focuses on freemium game context, the sample of Istanbul province in Turkey, and gen Z (12 to 29) players constituting the limitations.

Mobile game producers should consider that enjoyment is more substantial for female players to increase in-game revenue. Hence, perceived attractiveness and economic value may be improved for male players. They could also balance the gaming experience by providing social connectivity and isolation.

It is the initial attempt to unveil Turkish young mobile players’ behavioral tendency toward paid in-game extensions. On the other hand, gender difference is a salient matter unnoticed by other investigations that the strength of stimulus varies from players’ gender discovered by the research.

Technological advancements in games increased the popularity of online gaming. The rapid expansion of the eSports market may largely be attributed to the ever-increasing popularity amongst Generation Y amateur gamers. The primary objective of this study is to determine the factors influencing Generation Y amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions.

This study used the extended unified theory of acceptance as the theoretical framework. Data analysis included exploratory principal component analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggest that Generation Y amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions is an eight-factor model that is reliable, valid and has acceptable model fit. The results of the path analysis indicate that habit, price-value, flow, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions have a statistically significant positive influence on amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions, whilst social influence and hedonic motivation have a negative but non-significant influence on those intentions.

The sample was formed using only amateur eSports gamers. In this regard, the opportunity exists to research professional eSports gamers. This study only focussed on Generation Y members between 18 and 36 years old. As a result, there is an opportunity for researchers to research the different generations of South African eSports gamers to determine whether there are any differences or similarities between generational segments.

The results of this study clearly indicate that flow, together with habit are salient contributors to ongoing gameplay intentions amongst amateur eSports gamers in South Africa. A reasonable assumption that can be made here is that flow is also instrumental in encouraging habitual gaming, which increases the importance of flow in overall ongoing gameplay intentions. This suggests that R&D expenditure should be directed at enhancing user engagement by building increased levels of flow into eSports games.

eSports game developers can also achieve a desired state of flow by creating daily challenges that reward players when the players achieve specific objectives, which will encourage gamers to enter a state of flow when provided with challenges to complete. However, these in-game challenges should have a variety of levels regarding difficulty, ranging from beginner, intermediate and advanced levels so as not to exceed the effort expectancy of different groups of players. Game developers should provide regularly updated challenges to gamers to ensure that eSports games remain enjoyable and does not become predictable.

Given the nascence of research on eSports behaviour, the results of this study provide a novel addition to the knowledge pool, particularly in terms of amateur eSports behavioural intentions. Interestingly, hedonic motivation and social influence were non-significant negative predictors of Generation Y amateur gamers' ongoing eSports gameplay intentions. The recommendations provide various marketing strategies and opportunities for eSports business expansion.

This study explored how the use of different social media is related to subjective well-being among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

We surveyed 1,681 university students in the Kanto region of Japan in May 2021 to investigate how social media use relates to subjective well-being. We also examined the effects of self-consciousness and friendship, self-presentation desire, generalized trust, online communication skills, depression tendency and social support from others.

The responses revealed 15 possible patterns of social media usage on four widely used social media in Japan (LINE, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook). We selected users with the top five patterns for further statistical analyses: LINE/Twitter/Instagram/Facebook, LINE/Twitter/Instagram, LINE/Twitter, LINE/Instagram and LINE only. Overall, self-establishment as a factor of self-consciousness and friendship, and social support from others had positive effects on the improvement of subjective well-being, whereas depression tendency had negative effects on their subjective well-being regardless of their usage patterns, of which the results of social support from others and depression tendency were consistent with the results of previous studies. Regarding other factors, they had different effects on subjective well-being due to different patterns. Effects on subjective well-being from self-indeterminate and self-independency as factors of self-consciousness and friendship, praise acquisition, self-appeal and topic avoidance as factors of self-presentation desire were observed.

This is among the earliest studies on the relationship between young generations’ social media use and subjective well-being through social media usage patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

This study combines uses and gratifications theory and flow theory to create an integrated model that predicts continuance intention to use and satisfaction with livestreaming services.

The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 304 users about their perceptions of livestream services.

The results indicate that gratifications such as entertainment, informativeness and sociability were all positively related to satisfaction. The authors find that flow mediates the impact of interactivity and telepresence on satisfaction. Notably, sociability gratification and satisfaction had a significant impact on a user's intention to continue to use livestreaming services and accounted for 77% of the variance.

The study adds to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the uses and gratifications theory and flow theory in live stream services. In addition, the findings may provide useful insights for live stream services streamers and marketers.

Nowadays, star athletes are global brand personalities. The increased popularity of the professional sport has contributed to elevating exceptional athletes to international star status. This empirical study aims to assess the impact of athlete performance and brand social value on product involvement with the mediation effect of celebrity athlete endorsement.

A quantitative survey was conducted with 399 Chinese participants. PLS-SEM is adopted to examine the associated paths and the mediating effect of celebrity endorsement.

The results demonstrate the significant impact of athlete performance and brand social value on product involvement. Celebrity endorsement partially mediates the effects of athlete performance and brand social value on product involvement.

This study extends understanding of celebrity athlete endorsement and provides insight into the strategic implications for Chinese social media-based marketing initiatives in the context of the recent Olympic Game in Tokyo 2021.

This paper aims to provide a review of literature directions regarding the potential impact of fintech operators on the financial services market globally. This paper reviews the literature to identify possible benefits or challenges that fintech firms can have for the traditional banking system.

This paper is based on a review of published research papers related to fintech and digital finance. The Scopus database, SSRN database and google scholar were used to find relevant research papers. The final sample included impactful papers about the effect of fintech activities on the banking and financial services industry.

The current paper indicated that while fintech firms would take some market share away from banks, it is not expected that fintech firms would substitute banks. However, banks are required to accelerate their adoption of innovations and advanced technology to compete with fintech firms. It is also proposed that strategic partnerships and cooperation could happen between banks and fintech companies in a way that benefits both sides.

The present paper adds to the understanding of the effect of the fintech firms’ growth on the banking industry in light of the emerging opportunities and threats for the financial sector. The paper also provides guidance for fruitful research on the impact of fintech activities on social and economic welfare in the future.

It is not possible for every fan of a sport to watch matches at stadiums because of the capacity and location constraints. Furthermore, although sport fans could not physically attend sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic, corporations still showed interest in sponsoring such events. To better understand this phenomenon, this study examined the effects of fans' event involvement on event reputation, event commercialization, corporate brand credibility, corporate brand image and purchase intentions of the corporate sponsor brand.

A total of 646 responses were collected from fans of Indian Premier League teams. Confirmatory factor analysis and covariance-based structural equation modelling analyses were conducted on the collected data.

Results showed that fans' involvement in televised sporting events had a positive influence on the events' reputation, which, in turn, had a significant impact on their corporate brand credibility and image. Furthermore, the corporate brand credibility and image had a positive impact on the fans' purchasing decisions.

This study provides valuable implications for marketing managers aiming to enhance their understanding of the impact of event sponsorship on corporate brands. In addition, the findings provide insight into how to support the development of effective sponsorship strategies in the future. The results suggest that sponsoring companies should consider maintaining the credibility and image of their brands to achieve the desired outcomes from sponsoring such sporting events.