| Since the normalization of epidemic prevention and control,live esports events have grown rapidly.As the main medium for the dissemination of esports events,the live esports platform is able to gather huge amounts of online users during the events,which can substantially increase the influence of the live streaming platform while also implying huge economic benefits.However,despite the promising development of live esports events,they are limited by misconceptions at the public level and the declining growth rate of esports users year by year.The viewership and payment behavior of live esports events are affected,which in turn affects the value return of the live streaming platform and the copyright value of esports events.Based on this,it is particularly urgent to investigate and verify the viewing drivers of live esports events and the mechanism of these drivers on the willingness of viewing behavior.It will help live esports platforms to more accurately identify those important viewing drivers,and then target to attract and maintain esports audience.Taking the domestic live esports platform as an example,we focus on the research theme of esports viewers’ behavior of watching live esports events,use unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 as a framework to explore the importance of viewing drivers,verify the relationship between viewing drivers and viewing behavior intention,prove the moderating effect of dan game and esports identification,and supply basis and suggestions to the managers of live esports events.Combined with the characteristics of esports events,we borrowed and modified mature foreign scales,and then developed the live esports events viewing drivers,viewing behavior intention and esports identification scales through rigorous procedures such as focus group discussions,expert validity tests and the pilot study.In this study,a convenience sample was taken and 462 valid questionnaires were collected.Descriptive statistical analysis was implemented using SPSS 25.0,structural equation modeling was performed using Smart PLS 3.3.2,reliability and validity of the scales were examined,and path analysis,predictive effect analysis,multi-group analysis,and importance-performance map analysis(IPMA)were implemented.Based on results and discussions,the following conclusions were drawn:(1)the live esports event viewing drivers,viewing behavior intention,and esports identification scale,all had good levels of reliability and validity.(2)The reflective-formative HCMs of viewing drivers has good measurement properties.(3)There is a positive and significant effect of viewing drivers on viewing behavior intention.(4)By importance-performance map analysis,we found that the importance scores of habit,price value and social influence were lower than the average,but the performance scores were higher than the average,which needed to be focused on.(5)The relationship between viewing drivers and viewing behavior intention was not moderated by esports identification.(6)Dan game has a moderating effect on the influence of viewing drivers on viewing behavior intention.Management and marketing suggestions are as follows.(1)Carry out market research activities with the help of the scale related to live esports events.(2)Focus on cultivating the viewing habits of esports viewers.(3)Enhance the sense of worthiness and access of esports viewers.(4)Promote and establish a positive image of esports.(5)Segment the esports audience based on dan game and implement differentiated marketing. |
PDF Full Text Request