Deciphering the World of eSports

TLDR

The editorial introduces the eSports industry, noting its unique ecosystem of stakeholders, characteristics, and governing principles that make it an unusual subject for media management research. The editorial aims to highlight eSports’ potential to reshape media management by shifting consumer influence, localizing content, and blending online and offline engagement. The editorial introduces the three papers in the special issue. The papers demonstrate eSports’ uniqueness by deepening media management understanding and suggest that studying eSports can guide media digitization and sustainable business model development.

Abstract

This editorial gives a short preface to the eSports industry and why this industry is unusual for media management research – thereby describing the eSports ecosystem based on the stakeholders involved, the fundamental characteristics, and the governing principles of the industry. Then the three papers in this special issue are introduced. These papers show the uniqueness of the eSports industry by enhancing the understanding of eSports in a media management context. Furthermore, the editorial is highlighting its potential contribution to the field in aspects like the changing role of the consumers having a stronger influence on the media process, moving from global to local, and online to offline or the changes in media engagement in a digital environment. The editorial concludes by stating the potential of researching eSports as a case for the path to digitize media management and, additionally, create sustainable business models in the digitized society.