Purpose

Social media's role in engaging participants in sports events, particularly during the pandemic, is acknowledged. However, previous studies often utilized sports events for diverse objectives but overlooked brand equity's influence on sports event development. And very limited research explores social media's impact on brand equity in esports events, despite its significance. Therefore, this study aims to explore how social media affects esports event brand equity and participants' satisfaction and engagement with social media through brand equity's influence.

Design/methodology/approach

The study focused on League of Legends World Championships (LOLWC) participants, who completed a self-judged questionnaire online. The questionnaire included demographic details and latent constructs. Data analysis involved two steps: exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to assess measurement scale validity and structural equation modeling (SEM) to study relationships between traits.

Findings

The results reveal that, within the esports event context, controlled communication exerts a meaningful and dual impact – both directly and indirectly – on the fundamental components of brand equity. This, in turn, serves as a catalyst for increasing participant contentment and their posting intention.

Originality/value

This study applies brand equity theories to the esports domain, exploring participant-based brand equity concepts, user behavior and the influence of social media communication on event branding and engagement. It also recommends strategies for event improvement, emphasizes controlled communication for brand equity and highlights marketing's role in brand awareness, association and participant satisfaction. Additionally, it suggests government regulation to address cyber violence during esports events.

中文翻译：

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网上发帖意图：电子竞技的社交传播和品牌资产重要吗？

目的

社交媒体在吸引体育赛事参与者参与方面的作用，尤其是在疫情期间，已得到公认。然而，以往的研究往往利用体育赛事来实现不同的目标，而忽视了品牌资产对体育赛事发展的影响。尽管社交媒体具有重要意义，但探讨其对电子竞技赛事中品牌资产影响的研究却非常有限。因此，本研究旨在探讨社交媒体如何影响电子竞技赛事品牌资产以及参与者通过品牌资产的影响对社交媒体的满意度和参与度。

设计/方法论/途径

该研究主要针对英雄联盟世界锦标赛 (LOLWC) 参与者，他们在线填写了一份自评问卷。调查问卷包括人口统计细节和潜在结构。数据分析涉及两个步骤：用于评估测量量表有效性的探索性因素分析（EFA）和用于研究性状之间关系的结构方程模型（SEM）。

发现

结果表明，在电子竞技赛事背景下，受控沟通对品牌资产的基本组成部分产生了有意义的双重影响——直接和间接。反过来，这又成为提高参与者满意度和发帖意愿的催化剂。

原创性/价值

本研究将品牌资产理论应用于电子竞技领域，探讨基于参与者的品牌资产概念、用户行为以及社交媒体传播对赛事品牌和参与度的影响。它还建议活动改进策略，强调品牌资产的受控沟通，并强调营销在品牌知名度、联想和参与者满意度方面的作用。此外，它还建议政府监管以解决电子竞技赛事期间的网络暴力问题。