Empirical Study Of The Influence Factors On The Usage Behavior Of Games Derivative Products

It has been ten years from the first time game players in our country played the onlinegames. Chinese online games market is developing quickly and has already become one ofthe most important component of the Global digital entertainment market. The domesticmarket scale which only count the games' income was 25.8 billion yuan and the abroadmarket scale was 106 million dollar which is much more than the total income of thetraditional three entertainment industries which include movie, TV and audio-visual product.From the global view games industry is also a quickly developing market and also one ofthose markets on which the impact from financial crisis is the least. Games industry hasalready become very important or even pillar industry in USA, Japan and Korea.Games and animation both belong to creative industry. Income from the animationderivative products is several times as much as the income of animation in USA,Japan andKorea. As a result more and more games' development and operation companies becomeinteresting in the games derivative products and begin to develop these products but fewcompanies have got success. Such situation is quite confusing for all the big games companiesaround world.According to the result of literature research there has not been any academic research onthe consumer behaviour of games derivative products. Aim of this study is to fill this gap. It iswished the study result can provide theoretical support and practical help to those enterpriseswhich want to develop games derivative products and make contribution to the value chain ofgames industry.There are two basic theories in this study. The first one is the theory of reasoned action(TRA) and its expansion. The second one is the symbol consumption theory of JeanBaudrillard. In-depth interview was first used in exploratory research on the usage behaviourof games derivative products. Then relevant concepts were defined and initial hypotheseswere proposed. Adjustment on hypotheses and relevant measure variables was made on thebasis of pre-test analysis and then an innovative structural equation model on the usagebehaviour of games derivative products was proposed. A questionnaire was designed to testand verify the structural equation model.There are two prepositive variables in the verified model which is games experience andinformation perception; six intermediate variables which is emotional symbol, risk control,descriptive norm, cognitive attitude, emotional entertainment and usage intention; one resultvariable which is usage behaviour. The relationship between different variables of the model can give relevant companies lots of information on the developing and operating of gamesderivative products.The innovation of this research include:1. Expansion on the definition of games derivative products.According to the demand ofgames players derivative products based on the brands of games, games developmentcompanies and games operators were all brought into the definition of games derivativeproducts. The definition expansion can give more creative space for development and designcompanies and their operation and satisfy the demand of consumers.2. Three construct variables which influence the usage behaviour of games derivativeproducts: emotional entertainment, emotional symbol and risk control were proposed. Theseconstructs prove that the games players' emotion is the basis of their perceived playfulnessand symbol perception and the games players' emotional attitude toward the games derivativeproducts is the extension of their emotional attitude toward the games in real life. Theseconstructs simplify the structural equation model and highlight the main factors influencingconsumers' usage behaviour of games derivative products.3. This study propose and verify an innovative influential factors models on the usagebehaviour of games derivative products. It fill the academic gap of research on the usagebehaviour of games derivative products.4. The influence of control variables such as sex, age and income level on the usagebehaviour of games derivative products was studied on the basis of the structural equationmodel.5. Some suggestions were proposed to companies on the development and operation ofgames derivative products according to the model, regression weights between differentconstructs in the model and the factor loadings of different measure variables on constructs inthe model.