Value Co-creation in Sports Live Streaming Platforms: A Microfoundations Perspective

Abstract

As a primarily synchronous social media form, social live streaming services (SLSSs) offer real-time interaction between streamers and viewers, and among viewers. Users' value cocreation has become increasingly crucial for platform businesses to increase their competitive advantage. However, the previous studies using the microfoundations approach have only confirmed the employees' efforts to adopt technology as a way to achieve the firms' goals. This study explores the microfoundations of external actors' (viewers and streamers) value cocreation on sports live streaming platforms (SLSPs). Taking China Sport as a case study, this paper conducted netnography research with observations made of four live-streamed matches on the final matchday of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Grand Final 2019. In total, 16,204 real-time messages and 5,540 gifting messages were reviewed. Indepth interviews were also conducted with five streamers and 15 viewers. As a result, a typology of viewers (managers, fans, and audiences) emerged, and five viewer-streamer-viewer value co-creation activities were revealed. Furthermore, the unique value-in-use among streamers and viewers in different activities was found. This study presents a model to shows that the viewers' engagement and the value co-creation activities between viewers and streamers at a microlevel determines the value-in-use formation, which in turn, contributes to the competitive advantages for SLSPs at a macro level. This study contributes to the existing literature of engagement behaviour and value co-creation by empirically examining the role of external actors' engagement as the microfoundations of value co-creation in the context of new social technologies -SLSPs.

The viewer value co-creation process on sports live streaming platforms

“…However, SLSPs rely on sporting events, which are not created by the streamers. Streamers are thus crucial in the reprocessing of the sport event content through using their facial expression, knowledge of sports and framing skills (Liu et al, 2022a;Parker and Fink, 2008). Therefore, SLSPs need to bid for the broadcasting rights of the sports events from sporting organisations (clubs, leagues, national and international federations, and major event providers).…”

“…, 2020). Meanwhile, SLSPs offer sports viewers with a series of new functions such as 360-degree viewing, multi-screen display and a virtual reality environment to create an intensely immersive viewing experience (Liu et al. , 2022a, b).…”

“…Second, on SLSPs, there are many streamers broadcasting the same sporting event at the same time. SLSPs viewers can choose their favourite streamers' rooms to share and affirm their devotion to their sports or teams with the streamers and other viewers in a streamer-hosted community (Liu et al. , 2022a, b).…”

“…On SLSPs, viewers consume the service offering (the sports event) based on their direct interactions with streamers and other viewers within their social context (Hou et al. , 2019; Kim and Kim, 2020a, b; Liu et al. , 2022a, b).…”

“…The viewers can also interact with the streamers and other viewers by commentating on matches, building relationships, answering questions, re-processing content and maintaining the live interactive environment (Liu et al, 2022a). Thirdly, with the general SLSSs, and video game-specific SLSSs, streamers broadcast their own content (e.g.…”