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Online fundraising has become a rapidly growing alternative business financing method for esports. Despite this, a lack of attention has been given to its fans' motivations for participating in crowdfunding (CF) projects or behavioral intentions for spectatorship. To address this, the present study (1) categorizes esport CF investors' motivations based on the big five personality traits and (2) compares whether motivations and behavioral intentions for esports spectatorships vary depending on each group.

We applied K-means clustering analysis to classify investors. ANOVA was used to verify whether there were differences in CF motivations and behavioral intentions.

The study identified six distinct investor segments. Overall, esports CF investors showed high agreeableness and conscientiousness with low neuroticism. Fanatic fans were the most motivated and had the highest spectatorship intentions, driven by strong openness. In contrast, recognition seekers and charity donors exhibited the lowest viewing intentions. Entertainment seekers were highly motivated by excitement and aesthetics, linking CF participation to a strong desire to watch events. Despite higher neuroticism, reward hunters also showed significant viewing intentions, driven by drama and aesthetics. These findings highlight the diverse motivations and their influence on esports spectatorship.

This study investigates the motivations and behavioral intentions of CF investors and spectatorship, which has substantive theoretical and managerial implications for the business of esports.

Studying the effect of social media advertising on consumer engagement, this study analyzes the impact of shared-experience versus personal message strategies, informational versus transformational creative appeals and low-involvement products versus high-involvement products. It aims to determine how best to combine ad elements to affect consumer engagement on different levels.

Using an online survey among 448 Facebook users, an experimental factorial design of 2 (message strategy conditions) X 2 (creative appeal conditions) X 2 (product types: TV vs. frozen pizza) was used. Each advertisement was evaluated on three facets of engagement: cognitive, psychological and behavioral.

Results indicate that informational appeal is preferable for all conditions. The effectiveness of message strategy differs by product type, and interactions between message and appeal are significant only for the high-involvement product. Additionally, it indicates that message strategy is most significant in affecting behavioral engagement and not necessarily cognitive or psychological engagement.

To develop effective Facebook ads, practitioners should use a personal/informational combination when working with high-involvement products and a shared-experience/informational combination when working with low-involvement products.

An original grid for integrating message strategy and creative appeal is constructed in this paper. Besides behavioral engagement, it also evaluates cognitive and psychological engagement. By comparing products with a high and low involvement level, it provides marketers with actionable recommendations to increase social media campaign effectiveness.

With digitisation, a new kind of inequality has emerged in society between people and groups of people. A lack of digital inclusion creates challenges for the economic and social development of society and citizen participation. This study analyses how the country-level cultural factors defined by Hofstede are associated with citizens' digital skills and internet usage and how they moderate the effects of age, gender, educational level and income level.

This comparative cross-sectional study examines digital inclusion in 22 European countries. Data from the European Social Survey (N = 37,602) are analysed using a two-level regression analysis.

The study found significant effects of demographic and socio-economic factors and country-level indulgence on digital skills and internet usage. In addition, the study shows that a high value on the indulgence index moderates the negative effect of age.

The digital divide has been studied widely with regard to individual-level influencing factors and international comparisons. The significance of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in terms of digitisation and digital divides has also been confirmed in previous studies. However, there is a lack of analysis combining the effects of country-level culture and individual-level demographic and socio-economic factors on citizens' digital skills and internet usage. Generally, the research emphasises the significance of national culture in digital inclusion and especially in supporting the digital inclusion of older adults.