Previous studies have paid little attention to spectators’ consumption behaviors and motives for watching different types of esports live-streaming and game genres. This study, therefore, investigates spectator motives and consumption behaviors based on the interaction effects of live-streaming types and game genres. Convenience sampling was conducted to collect 312 responses from Taiwanese individuals via the Professional Technology Temple. The measurement tools include the motivation scale for sport consumption, esports streaming consumption behaviors, and two moderators (i.e., game genres and live-streaming types). The moderating effects were examined using the PROCESS macro. The results showed that esports spectating motives and consumption behaviors are determined by different types of live-streaming and game genres. A matrix of esports spectator segments was developed to illustrate the findings and managerial implications. The study’s findings broaden our understanding of esports consumption behaviors and can contribute to the fast-growing esports marketing literature. In addition, the results are expected to help practitioners better segment their consumer groups to develop more tailored marketing programs.

This study aims to examine firstly the motivations of esports spectators driving them to engage in consumption behaviour, and secondly, two spectator groups (League of Legends, LOL; Hearthstone) to compare the findings of the independence model and the competing model. In recent decades, the concept of esports has emerged as a major component of the sports industry and, therefore, of the global economy. However, the basic functioning of this new sector is relatively poorly understood. This study considers consumer motivations as they relate to esports and aims to assess how selected motivations interact. The motivations chosen in five categories were adopted from the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The independence model (based on Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT)) and competing model (based on multiple theoretical perspectives) were applied to the LOL and Hearthstone spectator groups. Data (n = 574) were collected via online surveys with cross-validation measured and established between the two groups. The findings showed that social integrative motivations positively impacted consumption behaviour across game genres. Affective motivation partially mediated the relationship between social integrative motivation and consumption behaviour in LOL, and cognitive and personal integrative motivations positively influenced consumption behaviour in Hearthstone. The tension-release motivation had no significant association with consumption behaviour for spectators of either game. The findings can help the commercial interests of different esports game genres to predict why people consume particular esports and thus aid effective marketing strategies.

This study examines the measurement of position generators as a proxy of network social capital (NSC) and its influence on the extensity and upper reachability of social capital and sport/running participation. An analysis of 373 runners shows that running exercise participants rely on diverse relations to access and increase their social capital levels; stronger ties with the accessed occupations via running activities can help reach people with higher occupational prestige; access to more intermediate class occupations is significantly positively associated with upper reachability, whereas access to more working class occupations is significantly negatively associated with upper reachability; those who are older and have strong ties with people in accessed occupations known via running activities have higher levels of sport/running participation. We provide evidence for the application of NSC theory in sport to better understand how social networks operate by accessing extensity and upper reachability of social capital and how NSC influences sport (running) participation.

Marketing researchers agree that use innovativeness leads to variety-seeking behavior in service usage in service contexts. As fitness consumers are high-frequency users, user behavior can be enriched by exploring the moderating effect of self-efficacy. This study explores the moderating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between fitness use innovativeness and usage patterns (usage variety and usage frequency), and investigates their mediation effects on satisfaction and revisit intention. A sample of 234 participants from one of the largest public fitness centers was employed to test the conceptual framework. The findings show that fitness use innovativeness has a positive relationship with usage variety but has no effect on usage frequency. However, self-efficacy demonstrated its moderation effects on the relationships between fitness use innovativeness and usage variety and usage frequency. The evidence of the moderation effect of self-efficacy conforms to the theory of the use-diffusion model. We finally developed a matrix of fitness innovators to illustrate related managerial implications for each segment.

Few studies have investigated changes in functional outcomes and economic burden in patients in the postacute care cerebrovascular disease (PAC-CVD) program. We, for the first time, retrospectively investigated changes in functional performance and the national health insurance (NHI) cost over 12 PAC-CVD hospitalization weeks and evaluated the therapeutic effects of the PAC-CVD program on the NHI cost. Specifically, the functional outcomes and NHI cost of 263 stroke patients in the PAC-CVD program were analyzed. The repeated measures t test was used to compare functional performance over 0–3 weeks, and a one-way repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance was used to compare functional performance and NHI costs during weeks 0–6 and 0–9. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare functional performance over weeks 9–12. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to estimate the effects of functional performance on NHI costs during weeks 3, 6, and 9. Over weeks 0–12, all functional performance measures demonstrated significant improvements. Changes in NHI costs varied depending on whether hospitalization was extended. At any time point, functional performance did not have a significant impact on NHI cost. Therefore, the PAC-CVD program may aid patients with stroke in sustainably regaining functional performance and effectively controlling economic burden.