A Study on the Various Attribute of E-Sport Influencing Flow and Identification (A Study on the Various Attribute of E-Sport Influencing Flow and Identification)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국마케팅과학회
· 수록지 정보 : Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science(마케팅과학연구) / 18권 / 1호 / 59 ~ 80페이지
· 저자명 : 서문식, 안진우, 김은영, 엄성원

초록

Recently, e-sports are growing with potentiality as a new industry with conspicuous
profit model. But studies that dealing with e-sports are not enough. Hence, proposes of
this paper are both to establish basic model that is for the design of e-sport marketing
strategy and to contribute toward future studies which are related to e-sports.
Recently, the researches to explain sports-sponsorship through the identification theory
have been discovered. Many researches say that somewhat proper identification is a
requirement for most sponsors to improve the their images which is essential to
sponsorship activity. Consequently, the research for sponsorship associated with
identification in the e-sports, not in the physical sports is the core sector of this study.
We extracted the variables from online's major characteristics and existing sport
sponsorship researches. First, because e-sports mean the tournaments or leagues in the
use of online game, the main event of the game is likely to call it online game. Online
media's attributes are distinguished from those of offline. Especially, interactivity,
anonymity, and expandibility as a e-sport game attributes are able to be mentioned. So,
these inherent online attributes are examined on the relationship with flow.
Second, in physical sports games, Fisher(1998) revealed that team similarity and team
attractivity were positively related to team identification. Wann(1996) said that the result
of former game influenced the evaluation of the next game, then in turn has an effect on
the identification of team supporters. Considering these results in the e-sports side,
e-sports gamer' attractivity, similarity, and match result seem to be important precedent
variables of the identification with a gamer. So, these e-sport gamer attributes are
examined on the relationship with both flow and identification with a gamer. Csikszentmihalyi(1988) defined the term flow as feeling status for him to be making
current positive experience optimally. Hoffman and Novak(1996) also said that if a user
experienced the flow he would visit a website without any reward. Therefore flow might
be positively associated with user's identification with a gamer. And, Swanson(2003)
disclosed that team identification influenced the positive results of sponsorship, which
included attitude toward sponsors, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction with sponsors. That
is, identification with a gamer expect to be connected with corporation identification
significantly.
According to the above, we can design the following research model.
Interactivity Anonymity Expandibility
Similarity
Attractivity
Match Result
Gamer
Identification
Flow
Sponsor
Identification
e-sport game's attributes
e-sport
gamer's
attributes
All variables used in this study(interactivity, anonymity, expandibility, attractivity,
similarity, match result, flow, identification with a gamer, and identification with a
sponsor) definitely were defined operationally underlying precedent researches. Sample
collection was carried out to the person who has an experience to have enjoyed e-sports
during June 2006. Much portion of samples is men because much more men than women
enjoy e-sports in general.
Two-step approach was used to test the hypotheses. First, confirmatory factor analysis
was committed to guarantee the validity and reliability of variables. The results showed
that all variables had not only intensive and discriminant validity, but also reliability.
Then, research model was examined with fully structural equation using LISREL 8.3
version. The fitness of the suggested model mostly was at the acceptable level.
Shortly speaking about the results, first of all, in e-sports game attributes, only
interactivity which is called a basic feature in online situation affected flow positively.
Secondly, in e-sports gamer's attributes, similarity with a gamer and match result
influenced flow positively, but there was no significant effect in the relationship between the attractivity of a gamer and flow. And as expected, similarity had an effect on
identification with a gamer significantly. But unexpectedly attractivity and match result
did not influence identification with a gamer significantly. Just the same as the fact
verified in the many precedent researches, flow greatly influenced identification with a
gamer, and identification with a gamer continually had an influence on the identification
with a sponsor significantly.
There are some implications in these results. If the sponsor of e-sports supports the
pro-game player who absolutely should have the superior ability to others and is similar
to the user enjoying e-sports, many amateur gamers will feel much of the flow and
identification with a pro-gamer, and then after all, feel the identification with a sponsor.
Such identification with a sponsor leads people enjoying e-sports to have purchasing
intention for products produced by the sponsor and to make a positive word-of-mouth
for those products or the sponsor.
For the future studies, we recommend a few ideas. Based on the results of this study,
it is necessary to find new variables relating to the e-sports, which is not mentioned in
this study. For this work to be possible, qualitative research seems to be needed to
consider the inherent e-sport attributes. Finally, to generalize the results related to
e-sports, a wide range of generations not a specific generation should be researched,

영어초록

Recently, e-sports are growing with potentiality as a new industry with conspicuous
profit model. But studies that dealing with e-sports are not enough. Hence, proposes of
this paper are both to establish basic model that is for the design of e-sport marketing
strategy and to contribute toward future studies which are related to e-sports.
Recently, the researches to explain sports-sponsorship through the identification theory
have been discovered. Many researches say that somewhat proper identification is a
requirement for most sponsors to improve the their images which is essential to
sponsorship activity. Consequently, the research for sponsorship associated with
identification in the e-sports, not in the physical sports is the core sector of this study.
We extracted the variables from online's major characteristics and existing sport
sponsorship researches. First, because e-sports mean the tournaments or leagues in the
use of online game, the main event of the game is likely to call it online game. Online
media's attributes are distinguished from those of offline. Especially, interactivity,
anonymity, and expandibility as a e-sport game attributes are able to be mentioned. So,
these inherent online attributes are examined on the relationship with flow.
Second, in physical sports games, Fisher(1998) revealed that team similarity and team
attractivity were positively related to team identification. Wann(1996) said that the result
of former game influenced the evaluation of the next game, then in turn has an effect on
the identification of team supporters. Considering these results in the e-sports side,
e-sports gamer' attractivity, similarity, and match result seem to be important precedent
variables of the identification with a gamer. So, these e-sport gamer attributes are
examined on the relationship with both flow and identification with a gamer. Csikszentmihalyi(1988) defined the term flow as feeling status for him to be making
current positive experience optimally. Hoffman and Novak(1996) also said that if a user
experienced the flow he would visit a website without any reward. Therefore flow might
be positively associated with user's identification with a gamer. And, Swanson(2003)
disclosed that team identification influenced the positive results of sponsorship, which
included attitude toward sponsors, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction with sponsors. That
is, identification with a gamer expect to be connected with corporation identification
significantly.
According to the above, we can design the following research model.
Interactivity Anonymity Expandibility
Similarity
Attractivity
Match Result
Gamer
Identification
Flow
Sponsor
Identification
e-sport game's attributes
e-sport
gamer's
attributes
All variables used in this study(interactivity, anonymity, expandibility, attractivity,
similarity, match result, flow, identification with a gamer, and identification with a
sponsor) definitely were defined operationally underlying precedent researches. Sample
collection was carried out to the person who has an experience to have enjoyed e-sports
during June 2006. Much portion of samples is men because much more men than women
enjoy e-sports in general.
Two-step approach was used to test the hypotheses. First, confirmatory factor analysis
was committed to guarantee the validity and reliability of variables. The results showed
that all variables had not only intensive and discriminant validity, but also reliability.
Then, research model was examined with fully structural equation using LISREL 8.3
version. The fitness of the suggested model mostly was at the acceptable level.
Shortly speaking about the results, first of all, in e-sports game attributes, only
interactivity which is called a basic feature in online situation affected flow positively.
Secondly, in e-sports gamer's attributes, similarity with a gamer and match result
influenced flow positively, but there was no significant effect in the relationship between the attractivity of a gamer and flow. And as expected, similarity had an effect on
identification with a gamer significantly. But unexpectedly attractivity and match result
did not influence identification with a gamer significantly. Just the same as the fact
verified in the many precedent researches, flow greatly influenced identification with a
gamer, and identification with a gamer continually had an influence on the identification
with a sponsor significantly.
There are some implications in these results. If the sponsor of e-sports supports the
pro-game player who absolutely should have the superior ability to others and is similar
to the user enjoying e-sports, many amateur gamers will feel much of the flow and
identification with a pro-gamer, and then after all, feel the identification with a sponsor.
Such identification with a sponsor leads people enjoying e-sports to have purchasing
intention for products produced by the sponsor and to make a positive word-of-mouth
for those products or the sponsor.
For the future studies, we recommend a few ideas. Based on the results of this study,
it is necessary to find new variables relating to the e-sports, which is not mentioned in
this study. For this work to be possible, qualitative research seems to be needed to
consider the inherent e-sport attributes. Finally, to generalize the results related to
e-sports, a wide range of generations not a specific generation should be researched,

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