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Playing video gaming is one of the most popular forms of leisure activities. This study looks into a specific video game genre, under the category of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that lead to the consumption of MOBA games. Three factors, imaginal, emotional and sensory experiences, are investigated through an integration of the hedonic consumption model, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT).

The study analyses a sample of 292 MOBA game players using the PLS-SEM model. The study comprises two stages; in the first stage, an estimation model was used to test the constructs' quality and legitimacy. In the second stage, we assessed the theoretical model to test the relationship between the principle constructs.

The study found that factors related to emotional experiences, namely enjoyment, emotional involvement, and arousal, led to greater intention to play MOBA games. Similarly, two factors related to imaginal experiences, escapism and role projection, also positively impacted while fantasy carried a negative impact. The study also found that sensory experiences had a significant positive impact on the intention to play MOBA games. Lastly, a positive correlation was also found between the intention to use and usage behavior in MOBA games.

This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the playful-consumption experiences of pleasure-oriented information systems (I.S.) that is MOBA games that derive behavioral intention to play MOBA games, which in turn determines the usage behavior of MOBA players. The study also incorporates the uses and gratification theory to uncover the needs and experiences that trigger MOBA games' behavioral intention and its further impact on gamers' usage behavior. The study also presents useful insights for game developers and other relevant stakeholders in game development.

This study aims to propose a model for predicting consumers’ esports videogame engagement on their ensuing consumption behaviors, which remains nebulous to date.

After approaching esports consumers in different gaming zones in Pakistan, this paper collected data from 364 videogame-based esports consumers. This paper deployed SmartPLS 3.2.8 software to perform the partial least squares-structural equation modeling-based analyzes.

The structural model results show that consumers’ affective and behavioral esports videogame engagement positively affects their consumption behavior, including heightened community engagement, purchase intent, coproduction, word-of-mouth and new player recruitment. However, while consumers’ cognitive esports engagement was found to positively impact community engagement, new player recruitment and coproduction, it failed to predict consumers’ esports-related purchase intent or word-of-mouth behaviors.

The findings reveal that a strategic focus on consumers’ esports game engagement will enable practitioners to nurture desirable consumer behaviors, including enhanced purchase intent, coproduction, word-of-mouth and new player recruitment behaviors, thus warranting consumer engagement’s strategic value as a key esports gaming metric.

Empirical research into the role of consumers’ esports videogame engagement on their ensuing consumption behaviors remains scant to date. Based on this gap, this study offers a timely contribution by exploring and validating a model that gauges the effect of consumers’ cognitive, emotional and behavioral esports videogame engagement on their community engagement, purchase intention, coproduction, word-of-mouth and new player recruitment. It, thus, offers important insight into the rapidly advancing field of digital esports games.

Advertising through the videogame has become one of the most effective and prevalent channels of advertisement, especially via pop-up ads – appearing on the screen that interrupts children’s gaming activity. Despite its importance, the effectiveness of pop-up ads and its advertising value in online videogames (O-VGs) to predict children’s inspired-to behavior remains scant. This study aims to investigate the underlying factors that explain the relationship between the four dimensions of pop-up ads and perceived advertising value, which further predicts children’s inspired-to behavior.

Data from 196 parents who observed their children while playing O-VGs, were analyzed using Smart-PLS. As the respondents are parents, the authors took extra precautions to ensure that the findings are valid.

Results showed that perceived irritation and incentives of pop-up ads do not affect children’s advertising value, whereas perceived informativeness and entertainment of pop-up ads positively impact perceived advertising value among children. Besides, children’s perceived advertising value of pop-up ads in O-VGs predict their inspired-to behavior.

This study contributes to children’s inspired-to behavior via empirically studying the perceived advertising value as a potential deriving source of inspiration. Finally, the study provides information for developers/advertisers about why and under what circumstances children perceived advertising value affect inspired-to behavior.

Entrepreneurial mindsets differ in diverse cultural contexts affecting the perceptions of business opportunity as well as the strategic posture and how to network to successfully implement it. For example, many scholars have shown that risk taking and proactiveness (i.e., characteristics of the strategic posture) are affected by cultural characteristics. The aim of the chapter is to shed light on the relationship between socio-cultural practices (using the GLOBE cultural theoretical framework) and entrepreneurial behavior understanding how culture may foster or hinder the entrepreneurial mindsets. The authors discuss how certain cultural dimensions may be linked to various aspects of entrepreneurial mindsets. Furthermore, the authors make some reflections with regard to the contextual conditions shaped by cultural factors that seem to be the most appropriate to spread the Humane Entrepreneurship Model.

Leadership has a decisive role in the success of all types of businesses and firms, including small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the ethical behavior of leaders is a key component which brings a sense of respect, fulfillment, trustworthiness and acceptance among the employees, which later become visible in their job performance (JP). This study aims to check the immediate effect of ethical leadership (EL) on employee’s JP (EJP) and also explore the indirect mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on this EL and EJP nexus.

Primary data was obtained from the employees of manufacturing SMEs of Northern Italy using a cross-sectional design from the end of 2019 to the start of 2020. This paper circulated 450 self-administered questionnaires using simple random sampling, and 202 (44.88%) valid questionnaires were returned. The PROCESS macro was performed using statistical package for social sciences to ensure whether or not EL affects EJP and is there any mediation effect of CSR present in this nexus.

The results indicate that EL has a strong positive connection with EJP and CSR. Interestingly, CSR positively influences EJP. Furthermore, the results also report the strong mediating effect of CSR in the nexus of EL and EJP.

This scholarly work seeks to contribute not only to the literature of EL and EJP but also enriches the understanding of this EL-EJP association by highlighting the indirect effect of mediating variable CSR in the SME sector.

This study aims to examine the relationship between board capital and firm performance in the Chinese tourism industry.

The study’s sample includes firms from the Chinese hotel, air transportation/travel and catering industries. This study explores the governance environment in tourism industries. This study estimates three dimensions of the board, including education, expertise and directors interlock. These dimensions are further grouped as human capital (i.e. education and expertise), social capital (interlocks) and board capital (sum of social and human capital). Ordinary least square regressions with multiple robustness tests are used to investigate the effect of board capital on firm value in Chinese listed tourism firms during 2005–2018.

This study finds that board capital positively impacts firm performance in its dimensions of human and social capital. This study also highlights the two important ownership contexts, namely, institutional investors and state-ownership, that shape the board capital-firm performance association in the Chinese tourism industry.

The findings suggest that board capital plays a significant role in corporate decisions. The results illustrate that higher board capital improves both governance mechanisms and resource provision roles of the board, resulting in higher firm value. The results further offer implications for managers and shareholders of tourism firms when electing directors as shareholders’ representatives.

The study has two important contributions. First, it extends the prior literature of firm value by considering the board’s human and social dimensions in the tourism sector. Second, contrary to prior research on board, this study takes three facets of board capital, education, expertise and interlocks that improve governance mechanisms and bring new resources in the shape of skills, knowledge and expertise.

In today's global economy, developing supply chain agility (SCA) and lean practices (LP) as resource-based view and dynamic capabilities are essential for firms to sustain their competitive advantage (CA) and enhance their operational performance (OP). The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework to investigate how CA is achieved through SCA and LP and how these, in turn, can enhance a firm's OP.

For data collection, the authors adopted the survey method using self-administered questionnaires. Two-source survey data were collected in two rounds (separated by a two-month lag time) from supply chain managers, operational managers and general managers. The purpose of collecting data in two rounds was to reduce common-method bias. Likert scale (1–5) was used in the questionnaire. Smart PLS 3 and SPSS 23 were used for the data analysis purpose.

SCA was found to directly and positively affect OP. LP also positively affected OP. In addition, CA fully mediated the relationship between SCA, LP and OP.

This study encourages the managers of manufacturing firms to adapt LP and their supply chains (SCs) to become agile and leverage the advantages of their implementation to improve their OP and succeed in the market.

This study is one of the first to investigate the effect of SCA and LP on OP. Furthermore, the first study examines CA's mediating impact on the relationship between SCA, LP and OP.

This study aims to determine the role of intellectual capital (IC) on financial performance (FP), the mediating effect of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) and the moderating role of big data analytics on the banking sector operating in Pakistan.

This study collected quantitative and cross-sectional data using structured questionnaire forms distributed to selected targeted respondents using a convenient sampling technique. The 518 useable questionnaires were analysed using the SmartPLS software through a structural equation modelling technique to test the proposed research hypotheses.

The study results revealed that IC has shown an impact on FP. The role of HPWP significantly mediates between IC and FP, while the moderating role of big data analytics remains insignificant.

This study highlights IC's role in enhancing FP in the Pakistani banking sector. It will bring a higher quality IC in the banking sector, and they will be better positioned to serve the community. Policymakers need to invest in IC and HPWP and utilise BDA, which will boost FP and uplift the quality of the banking sector.

This study extends the concept of IC and adds the theoretical role of HPWPs and big data analytics in the literature on IC, along with the contextual application. The study also develops a unique role of the integrated IC model theory with a relationship to the banking sector of Pakistan.

The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of consumers on Islamic banking and finance in Pakistan. Islamic finance is an emerging phenomenon, and its survival depends on the availability, affordability and awareness. This paper attempts to fill the gap in the literature by exploring the perceptions of consumers and bankers in an attempt to gain insights so that the availability of products and awareness can be increased.

The study uses a regression model by using perception as a dependent variable and awareness, knowledge and religious motivation as independent variables. Primary data is collected using 150 questionnaires distributed amongst finance students in several universities and employees of Islamic banks in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province of Pakistan.

The findings reveal that overall consumers’ perception is positive about Islamic banking and finance in Pakistan. Statistical analysis shows that awareness, knowledge and religiosity level have a positive influence on the perception of consumers about Islamic financing products and services in Pakistan. To improve the awareness and understanding, Islamic banks could make better marketing strategies and could increase their presence by mosque visits and conferences. Cooperation between the industry and scholars could help in providing more innovative products to the consumers.

There has been a limited amount of work carried out on the perceptions of consumers about Islamic banking in Pakistan. The present study represents the start of a larger context for examining Islamic banking practices in Pakistan. The findings of the study can be used as a reference in future research projects in the areas of perceptions and awareness.

Little research has been conducted to study this problem from the perspectives of consumers and Islamic banking employees. Most of the research associated with Islamic banks fails to pay attention to these stakeholder groups in one study.