Purpose: This study investigates the use of gamification in promoting the silver generation's adoption of mobile payment technology through the gamified cultural practice of gifting red packets. It considers the effectiveness of using gamification in a cultural context to promote technology acceptance among older adults. This crossover between digital technology and cultural traditions brings unique gaming elements to the adoption of technology.Design/methodology/approach: Drawing upon technology acceptance Model (TAM) and prospect theory, a research model is evaluated using structural equation modeling. Data were collected via survey from elderly consumers who are current users of WeChat but are yet to use its mobile payment functions.Findings: The results reveal the perceived effectiveness of gamification is determined by the perceived enjoyment of the game and contributes to users' attitude development, directly and through its perceived usefulness. Perceived risks were identified as a barrier to converting positive attitude into adoption intention.Research limitations/implications: The findings contribute to the conceptualization and understanding of the effectiveness of gamification in technology adoption, specifically among the silver generation.Originality/value: In contrast with previous gamification studies on gamified experience, this study introduces a new conceptualization of the perceived effectiveness of gamification and its measurement. This study validates game engagement as being effective in encouraging seniors to adopt a technology. In an era of an aging population where digitization is a norm, improving the digital literacy and digital inclusion of elders by encouraging them to adopt technology is essential to developing a more accessible and inclusive social environment.

Evolving along with technological advancement and representing a complex digital phenomenon, esports is a rising nascent industry with knowledge gaps on how the current esports landscape and key actors operate. The esports ecosystem is characterised by the confluence of multiple interrelated leisure industries of sports, media, and entertainment. The overall esports operation could be elucidated only through mapping out critical actors, their roles and interrelationships. Using the framework of the Interorganisational Relations Theory (IOR), we present the contemporary esports landscape by exploring its production, distribution and consumption processes. Through examining the key actors of the esports value chain and their interorganisational relationships, we analysed how the esports industry is developed, supported and sustained through their collaborative efforts. This study contributes to evidence-based theorising of the esports industry, which is necessary to reflect on the current setup and infrastructure needed for the industry’s sustainable development.

This study examines how China’s status as a global leader in esports reflects its pursuit of global ascendancy, through exercising soft power attained from esports diplomacy as a power resource.Res...

Hailed as the flagship of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strategy regarding young people, the organising of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was approved by the IOC in 2007 and Singapore was subsequently selected as the first host city for the summer YOG. Although the YOG is going to be the first new event the IOC has staged since the 1924 winter Olympic Games, its novelty may not be as radical as first impressions may suggest. This paper charts the chronological development of the YOG through a broad overview of little-known Youth Olympic Festivals, which the YOG is reported to be modelled after, and traces the political/economical/ideological contexts for the conception of the YOG. Despite being the latest addition to the Olympics family, the YOG is not spared from conflicts and tensions which inundated the Olympic Games. This paper aims to exemplify the range of debates presented by the launch of the YOG and contribute to the literature examining the opportunities and challenges presented by the launch of the YOG.