Esports Governance: Exploring Stakeholder Dynamics

Qi Peng, Geoff Dickson, Nicolas Scelles, Jonathan Grix and Paul Michael Brannagan
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Qi Peng: Sport Policy Unit, Department of Economics, Policy and International Business, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, UK
Geoff Dickson: La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia
Nicolas Scelles: Sport Policy Unit, Department of Economics, Policy and International Business, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, UK
Jonathan Grix: Sport Policy Unit, Department of Economics, Policy and International Business, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, UK
Paul Michael Brannagan: Sport Policy Unit, Department of Economics, Policy and International Business, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15 6BH, UK

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Esports is a rapidly growing industry. However, the unidentifiable governance structure of the industry has contributed to a number of integrity-eroding activities. By exploring esports stakeholder dynamics, this paper answers the question, “Is the esports governance model sustainable?” Data were sourced from documentation, focus groups ( N = 3) and semi-structured interviews ( N = 6). Thematic analysis was conducted using Nvivo. The findings suggest that (1) the current esports governance framework features some attributes of the “lead organisation-governed network”, with the power residing mainly in game publishers; (2) the rising power of other stakeholders in the network seeking to address integrity issues has caused fragmentation of the esports governance framework; (3) esports governance is evolving towards a network administration organisation (NAO) model. Such evolution has a few challenges—most notably, the compliance of game publishers. Given the social impact of the integrity issues, governments should play a main role in facilitating a NAO model.

Keywords: esports; sustainability; network governance; stakeholder; power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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