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The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship of gamification design elements on social play habit and we-intention to continue playing in a mobile multiplayer game context. The study further intends to reveal the mediating role of social play habit in the relationship between gamification design elements and we-intention to continue playing.

The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 292 PUBG users based in Malaysia. PLS-SEM analysis was used to assess the model since it includes formative and reflective constructs.

The results indicated that gamification design elements significantly affect social play habit in a positive direction. In the simultaneous condition, social play habit also significantly affects the we-intention to continue playing the mobile multiplayer game. However, these three elements of gamification design did not significantly affect the formation of we-intention to continue playing in the context of mobile multiplayer games. Notably, social play habit was found to fully mediate the relationships between immersive-related interaction, achievement-related interaction, social-related interaction and we-intention to continue playing.

This study highlights the importance of social play habits as a factor linking the relationship between gamification design elements and we-intention to continue playing. In addition, this study also provides significant insights for the game creators to emphasise the gamification design elements so that the sustainability of the game can be secured from the perspective of retaining the current users through the social play habit element.

The study is noteworthy because it is the first attempt to use gamification design elements to explain how social play habit affect the formation of we-intention to continue playing in the setting of a mobile multiplayer game environment. In addition, the findings may add to the body of knowledge in the field of gamification theory.

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model that accounts for an individual's we-intention to continue playing a mobile multiplayer game.

Drawing on habit-intention and habit formation theories, this study conceptualizes social play habit as a determinant of the we-intention to continue playing and identifies its antecedents. The proposed model was tested through a survey of 277 players of Honor of Kings, a popular mobile multiplayer game.

The results indicate that developing social play habit is critical to the formation of a we-intention to continue playing in the context of mobile multiplayer games. The results also suggest that technological (social features embedded in the game) and individual (desire for co-play and privacy concerns) factors jointly influence social play habit.

This study contributes to the literature on we-intention by conceptualizing social play habit and verifying its role in facilitating a shared intention to continue playing mobile multiplayer games. Our work responds to the call for understanding the mechanism by which multiple people form a shared intention to continue using an information technology at a collective level. Our findings provide significant insights into the design of information technologies for collaboration.

This study is among the first to extend the literature on gaming habits by considering other players' involvement. Specifically, our study shifts researchers' attention from gaming habits characterized by individual properties to social gaming habits characterized by communal properties.

Focusing on the social influence processes in the context of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), this study aims to investigate the nomological network of social influence factors, a topic seldom explicitly articulated in the literature in this unique context.

This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to develop and test a context-specific model of social influence processes in MMORPGs. First, the authors conducted qualitative interviews with MMORPG players to identify the drivers shaping players' perceptions of social influences. Second, the authors formulated and tested a research model with quantitative data collected from 450 respondents of an online survey.

Through the qualitative study, the authors identify leader enthusiasm, social support and social presence as the critical drivers of social influence factors. The result of the quantitative study validates the influences of the critical drivers and demonstrates the impact of social influences on MMORPG players' we-intention to continue playing games.

This research extends the social influence theory by identifying contextualized drivers that shape MMORPG players' perception of social influences determining their we-intention to continue playing games. MMORPG service providers can draw on these drivers to leverage social influences to increase players' we-intention of continuance.

Online games are popular applications of Internet technology, with over 2.8 billion users worldwide. Many players engage in team gameplay, indicating that online games are suitable media through which players connect with their friends. However, past studies have not examined the ability of games to assist players in connecting with their friends, indicating a gap. To fill this gap, the authors propose a new concept, the friend-connecting affordance, which is the ability of an online game to enable players to contact friends within the game.

The authors built a model to explain how games' friend-connecting affordances influence game loyalty. The authors gathered responses from 1,347 online players and used structural equation modeling to test the model.

The authors found that friend-connecting affordances and team participation influence game loyalty. Gaming intensity and gaming history can moderate the impact of friend-connecting affordances.

This new affordance can be realized through various game elements, offering unique and actionable insights to game makers. The authors also compared the friend-connecting affordances among a number of popular online games, providing insights specific to each game and increasing the practical value of the findings.

Many universities implemented institutional social networking apps as an alternative to in-person social experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to explore previously identified factors that influenced intentions to form collective actions, also known as we-intentions, on such social networking apps and their influence on student satisfaction with the app artifact.

Students from across a large university were invited to participate in a survey. Responses from 915 students who reported using the app were analyzed using a maximum likelihood covariance-based structural equation model. Analysis was conducted using the R programming language's psych, lavaan, and semTools packages.

The authors found that we-intentions are positively associated with recent app use and with student satisfaction with the app. Group norms were found to significantly influence the formation of we-intentions, while social identity is positively associated with both we-intentions and satisfaction.

The paper provides evidence that past research generalizes to the context of university mobile social networks and identifies a relationship between we-intentions and satisfaction in this context. It also provides practical insight into factors that influence we-intentions, and subsequently students' online education experience, in the context of a university's institutional mobile social network.

As digital spaces for team collaboration, virtual worlds bring considerable verisimilitude to technology-mediated social interaction and change the process of traditional team learning. The purpose of this study is to understand how to promote collaborative learning in virtual worlds by leveraging the power of we-intention to participate in virtual worlds. The authors further use the valence–instrumentality–self-efficacy–trust model (VIST) model as a means of understanding the formation of we-intention to participate in virtual worlds, during which behavioral desire serves a bridging role.

The authors tested the research model using the data gathered from 298 users of a prominent form of virtual world, i.e. massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The authors used the structural equation modeling approach and the partial least squares technique for data analysis.

Results show that the four factors of the VIST model (i.e. valence on team goals, instrumentality of contribution, self-efficacy in team tasks and trust in team members) all positively influence we-intention to participate in virtual worlds through behavioral desire for team actions. We-intention to participate in virtual worlds further exerts a stronger positive effect on collaborative learning in virtual worlds, compared with I-intention to participate in virtual worlds.

This work advances the information systems literature by introducing a relevant and important concept, i.e. we-intention, to explain collaborative learning in virtual worlds. This study especially compared the effect of we-intention and I-intention on collaborative learning in virtual worlds. The results of this work also provide practitioners with insights into the role of we-intention in promoting collective actions in virtual worlds.

This paper investigates institutional quality and its impact on entrepreneurship activities in a less-developed economy. The unifying characteristic of government policies in less-developed contexts is that, often, the primary focus of policy makers is not entrepreneurs and, especially, not the impact of these intuitions on entrepreneurs. This paper aims to show that this impact can be considerable. The author investigates political and macroeconomic institutions and regulations, human capital and skills development and access to finance.

This paper investigates institutions that have major impact on entrepreneurship activities in a less-developed economy. The data used for the analysis is focused on Kosovan entrepreneurship, but the findings are presented in the wider context of economies. The aim of the investigation in this study is to identify whether certain regulations and institutions in different countries affect the level of entrepreneurship activity. In addition, the purpose is to identify similarities and differences among entrepreneurship patterns in diverse economic and institutional settings and to capture this diversity within a common framework. Most of institutions that are subject of analysis belong to one of the following dimensions: political, legal and regulatory institutions, educational institutions geared towards entrepreneurship and the quality of the financial system (e.g. cost of and access to finance). What the empirical results in this paper show is that the impact of such institutions on entrepreneurship can be considerable. The more conducive and qualitative the country’s institutional conditions are, the higher the likely levels of entrepreneurship and vice versa.

The results of the investigation suggest that compared to the reference countries, entrepreneurship in Kosovo is subject to numerous constraints. However, they suggest, also, that the most binding of these are related to institutional quality, followed by the cost of finance and human capital limitations.

There are few studies in the entrepreneurship literature that use data at the country level, a level that provides a considerable level of precision on the quest to understand what propels and constraints entrepreneurial activity. Given the scarcity of studies at the country level, this study aims to contribute in three ways. First, it aims to advance our discussion of how institutions can rightfully support business creation and retention in a less-developed economy. Second contribution is empirical. Entrepreneurship research rarely incorporates the analysis of several cohorts of firm entrants and exits from a developing and relatively young economy, which, so far, has received little research attention. Third, this analysis contributes to the development of a comparative methodology to measure entrepreneurship activities from an international perspective. The findings obtained for a less-developed economy are compared to data for four benchmark countries, to measure entrepreneurship at the national level.

Grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) (Venkatesh et al., 2012), the purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents and consequence associated with esports gameplay by proposing the Esports Consumption (ESC) model, including six determinants of esports gameplay intention (hedonic motivation, habit, price value, perceived effort expectancy, social influence and flow) and behavioral consequence (media consumption intention of esports events) that were linked to esports gameplay.

The proposed model was tested using the data (n=348) that were collected from esports consumers at two points in time. Per the technology adoption theories (i.e. TAM, UTAUT2), the authors incorporated a temporal separation when measuring the relationship between playing intention and playing behavior. For the purpose of data analysis, CFA and SEM were used to examine the hypothesized model.

As a result, four determinants (i.e. hedonic motivation, price value, effort expectancy and flow) were identified as the critical factors influencing esports consumers’ esports gameplay intention. Furthermore, the bootstrap method procedure verified that a sequential relationship among esports gameplay intention, esports gameplay and media consumption of esports events.

Theoretically, it has developed a research model that explains various triggers resulting from esports gameplay intention, which is causally linked to esports gameplay and media consumption behavior. Practically, the primary implication has to do with providing information regarding esports consumers’ playing behavior with esports game publishers, which organize esports events and leagues.

Billions of people around the world are experiencing new ways of interacting with people using the social networking sites (SNS). With the heavy traffic and technological capabilities, SNS offers remarkable gratifications to its users, but there is a lack of knowledge about how gratifications play a role in usage intention and whether there are other factors that influence this relationship. Therefore, this study aims to fulfill these research gaps.

To explore these issues in depth, this study conceptualizes a comprehensive framework based on the theory of uses and gratification (UGT), habit and the subjective norm. Structural equation model is used to analyze the survey data.

The results of the study reveal that UGT has a significant direct effect on usage intention. Furthermore, user habit and subjective norm play an important mediating role in the relationship between UGT and usage intention.

The proposed framework would extensively contribute to the SNS literature and managerial insights by integrating personal and social factors in determining the user acceptance of the media.

While each genre and gender has been revealed as significant moderators for esports gameplay intention, exploring the interaction effects between genre and gender could broaden our understanding of the drivers’ relative effects on esports gameplay intention. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the interaction effects of gender and genre in the relationship between esports gameplay intention and its drivers (i.e. hedonic motivation, habit, price value, effort expectancy, social influence and flow).

The hypothesized model was examined using data from a sample (N = 1,194). For the purposes of data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to examine the hypothesized model. Then, a series of structural invariance tests were conducted to compare the interrelationship between the six determinants and esports gameplay for the six-group model.

The results of the six-group model comparison indicated that the interaction between gender and genre moderates the relationship between drivers and esports gameplay intention. In particular, the following moderation effects were observed: (1) “social influence-esports gameplay intention” between “male-physical enactment” and “female-physical enactment”; (2) “habit-esports gameplay intention” and (3) “effort expectancy-esports gameplay intention” between “female-imagination” and “female-physical enactment”; (4) “hedonic motivation-esports gameplay intention” and (5) “effort expectancy-esports gameplay intention” between “female-physical enactment” and “female-sport simulation.”

The findings of this current study contributed to clarifying the genre and gender effects in esports gameplay intention and thus the extension of the Esports Consumption (ESC) model (Jang et al., 2020a) and the technology adoption literature. Since the ESC model grounded the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2), the improvement of the ESC model extended UTAUT2. In consumer behavior research in the esports context, this current study contributed to the extension of UTAUT2 on the new moderating mechanisms by adding the interaction between gender and esports game genre.