Investigation of Hong Kong Students’ Esports Participation Intentions Using the Theory of Planned Behavior Approach: A Structural Equation Model

Abstract

Esports have grown to become a core part of popular culture in many countries, including Hong Kong. Albeit the low participation rates in Esports in Hong Kong, it was starting to gain traction, yet the local Esports advocates were experiencing challenges in promoting and popularizing the Esport. Hence, the current study was aimed to identify and reveal the determinants of participating in Esports, as well as strengthen the work on Esports behaviors using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), a reliable and valid prominent theory in predicting human behavior across a plethora of contexts, ranging from health-related behaviors to sport consumption behaviors. In the current study, the convenience sampling method was used to recruit over 2000 students (secondary school, N = 1567 ( female = 615 ); university students, N = 1525 ( female = 255 ). The students were invited to participate in the survey for collecting their perception on Esports participation using TPB-based questionnaire. Results were analyzed using theoretical analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that both secondary school and university students have positive attitudes toward Esports. The outcomes indicated that participating in Esports develops social networks, and people with professional Esports’ skills capability and being fortitude tend to be models of Esports participation. However, inadequate resources are a significant barrier to participation in the Esports business. The SEM model verified that the variables of intention in Esports participation among the students in Hong Kong with an adequate goodness of fit index. As a whole, the current study has identified the factors and determinants of Esports’ intention and behavior among Hong Kong students, which were successfully displayed in terms of the theory of planned behavior. In addition, the findings are expected to provide the Hong Kong government with a documented framework to advocate Esports-related policies on a long-term basis.

What makes esports consumers watch streamers' esports live-streaming contents? Extending the theory of planned behavior

“…Prior studies have applied the TPB to understand an individual's decision-making processes in digital consumption, esports gameplay and video game live-streaming spectating (Chung et al, 2022;Koay et al, 2023;Leung et al, 2021;Srisathan and Naruetharadhol, 2022). Chung et al (2022) examined the modified TPB model to determine esports consumers' participating behavior among Hong Kong students. In their study, Chung et al (2022) found that esports participation and behavior toward esports entail playing esports games competitively.…”

“…Chung et al (2022) examined the modified TPB model to determine esports consumers' participating behavior among Hong Kong students. In their study, Chung et al (2022) found that esports participation and behavior toward esports entail playing esports games competitively. They found that ATT, SBN and PBC significantly impact behavioral intention.…”

“…The TPB has been widely adopted and used in social and behavioral studies (Chung et al, 2022;Han et al, 2020;Koay et al, 2023;Kumari et al, 2022;Leung et al, 2021;Zhao and Gao, 2022). To investigate esports live-streaming viewers' decision-making, according to the TPB, attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SBN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) are used as determinants of behavioral intention.…”

“…The TPB has been proven to help explain individuals' decision-making processes (Han et al, 2020). Further, scholars have used the TPB to predict esports gameplay (Chung et al, 2022;Leung et al, 2021) and watch video game live-streaming behaviors (Koay et al, 2023).…”

The Effect of Visual Appeal, Social Interaction, Enjoyment, and Competition on Mobile Esports Acceptance by Urban Citizens

“…Even though studies on acceptance analysis of online (mobile) games are easy to find, research in investigating esports based on established theories performed in previous studies is limited. For example, a recent study by P.-K. Chung et al (2022) investigated Hong Kong students' esports participation intentions using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The results showed that all native TPB variables, such as attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, significantly influence behavioral intention.…”