Purpose

Despite fast developments in esports sponsorship, limited research exists in the area of sponsorship evaluation in the esports context. The purpose of the present study was to test the relationships among esports involvement, sponsorship perceived fit and viewers’ intention to buy the sponsor’s products, and examine the degree to which perceived fit mediates the relationship between the involvement dimensions and intention.

Design/methodology/approach

The study draws on the theoretical model of sponsorship effects proposed by Wakefield et al. (2020) and obtained quantitative data from sampling esports viewers (n = 285). Statistical analysis was carried out in three steps. Beyond the descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the goodness of fit of the measurement model. The mediation analysis was performed at the end of the study.

Findings

The results supported the impact of one of the esports involvement dimensions (i.e. self-expression) on both perceived fit and esports viewers’ intentions to buy sponsors’ products. Involvement (self-expression) was found to have both direct and indirect relationships, through perceived fit, on purchase intentions. The study provided support for the associations among esports involvement dimensions, sponsorship perceived fit and purchase intentions.

Practical implications

The practitioners should first consider the involvement profile of esports viewers. The more involved viewers will be more likely to have positive perceptions about the fit between the esports tournament and the sponsor.

Originality/value

It is the first study to test a sponsorship evaluation model in the context of esports users. It does so by including a more detailed measurement of involvement (with three-dimensions) in the hypothesized model.

中文翻译：

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测试参与度、赞助感知适合性和购买赞助商产品的意愿之间的关系：以电子竞技比赛观众为例

 目的

尽管电子竞技赞助发展迅速，但电子竞技背景下赞助评估领域的研究有限。本研究的目的是测试电子竞技参与度、赞助感知适合度和观众购买赞助商产品的意图之间的关系，并检验感知适合度在参与维度和意图之间关系的调节程度。

设计/方法论/途径

该研究借鉴了Wakefield等人提出的赞助效应理论模型。 （2020）并从电子竞技观众抽样中获得了定量数据（ n = 285）。统计分析分三步进行。除了描述性统计之外，还进行了验证性因素分析（CFA）来评估测量模型的拟合优度。在研究结束时进行中介分析。

 发现

结果支持电子竞技参与维度之一（即自我表达）对感知适合性和电子竞技观众购买赞助商产品的意图的影响。研究发现，参与（自我表达）通过感知适合度与购买意向有直接和间接的关系。该研究为电子竞技参与维度、赞助感知适合性和购买意图之间的关联提供了支持。

 实际意义

从业者首先应该考虑电子竞技观众的参与度。参与度越高的观众就越有可能对电子竞技锦标赛和赞助商之间的契合度产生积极的看法。

 原创性/价值

这是第一项在电子竞技用户背景下测试赞助评估模型的研究。它通过在假设模型中包含更详细的参与测量（三维）来实现这一点。