IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/intemj/v20y2024i2d10.1007_s11365-023-00850-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamics of esports crowdfunding campaign success: a social exchange perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Hanhan Xue

    (Florida State University)

  • James Du

    (Florida State University)

  • Anthony D. Pizzo

    (La Salle University)

  • Bradley J. Baker

    (Temple University)

  • Thomas E. Henry

    (Florida State University)

  • Grace Yan

    (University of South Carolina)

  • Nicholas M. Watanabe

    (University of South Carolina)

Abstract

Esports—a professionalized, commercialized, and spectatorial form of video game competition—is a burgeoning industrial sector that has relied on entrepreneurial community support and multi-platform media distribution modalities to catalyze its growth. In particular, the esports industry is increasingly turning towards grassroots crowdfunding to gain access to financial resources that can be used to facilitate tournament prizes. However, what remains unclear is which factors contribute to grassroots esports crowdfunding campaigns’ success. We used social exchange theory to identify important social and economic attributes that may influence the outcomes of esports crowdfunding projects. For methods, we scraped crowdfunding data from Matcherino using Octoparse 8. A total of 14,497 esports crowdfunding projects were analyzed by using multiple regression analysis, as well as robustness checks that were estimated through machine learning techniques. We find that equal distribution of prize rewards, the endorsement of big brand sponsors, and genres of games significantly influence the success of esports crowdfunding. This contributes to our theoretical understanding of 1) the process of esports crowdfunding campaigns as a complex mechanism that incorporates financial incentives and social values, 2) esports as an emerging industry that is institutionalizing, 3) the heterogeneity of genre-based community, and 4) the importance of distributive justice of prize rewards for organizing grassroots esports tournaments and events. Furthermore, we discussed methodological implications regarding the use of econometrics approach and machine learning for future crowdfunding and esports research as well as managerial implications for esports entrepreneurs, esports teams and organizations, and sponsors and investors in terms of developing strategies tailored to the dynamics of esports communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanhan Xue & James Du & Anthony D. Pizzo & Bradley J. Baker & Thomas E. Henry & Grace Yan & Nicholas M. Watanabe, 2024. "The dynamics of esports crowdfunding campaign success: a social exchange perspective," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 549-573, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:intemj:v:20:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11365-023-00850-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11365-023-00850-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11365-023-00850-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11365-023-00850-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:intemj:v:20:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s11365-023-00850-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.