A Test and Refinement of Self-Determination Theory: Investigating the Relationships among Basic Psychological Needs, Motivation, Satisfaction, and Revisit Intention in Esports.

Aim: By applying self-determination theory (SDT) in eSport, this study aimed to test the relationships among basic psychological needs, motivation, satisfaction, and revisit intention among participants in an eSport camp in China.
Theoretical background: SDT postulates that all human behaviours stem from different types of motivations, which are amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation and also proposed that when three basic psychological needs (BPN), namely autonomy, relatedness and competence, are satisfied, motivation will move along the continuum towards self-determined side (Deci & Ryan, 1985). A plethora of studies investigated the impact of the psychological needs on intrinsic motivation and all provided empirical evidence of an overall positive relation between the basic needs and motivation. For example, satisfaction of autonomy or relatedness has been well supported for being a predictor of intrinsic regulation, and though it was relatively week, competence was also found to positively related to intrinsic motivation (Quested & Duda, 2009). At the same time, motivation is argued to strongly mediate level of satisfaction in various fields (Oliver, 1980). Furthermore, proliferation of research has supported behavioral intention as the consequence of satisfaction (Cronin, Brady, & Hult, 2000). However, the paths among these constructs under SDT have never been examined before in eSports context. Therefore, a comprehensive model could be potentially developed using eSport event participants to include all these constructs and the paths among them, which are BPN – Intrinsic Motivation – Satisfaction – Revisit Intention.
Methodology: Data were collected from 78 participants in a League of Legend training camp hosted by one professional eSports club in China. The basic psychological needs scale contained 14 items for three factors, which were perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy (Quested & Duda, 2009). Motivation was measured by SMS-II (Pelletier, Rocchi, Vallerand, Deci, & Ryan, 2013). Satisfaction was measured by the scale developed by Oliver (1980), and revisit intention was measured using 3 items by Cronin, Brady, and Hult (2000). Participants responded to items on a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). For data analysis, a two-step approach (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988) of structural equation modeling was carried out. The internal structure (overall model fit, reliability and validity) of the measurement model through a confirmatory factor analysis was assessed. For the hypothesis testing, the structural model was conducted assessed to estimate path coefficients for the proposed relationships. All analyses employed in the study were performed using LISREL 8.72.

Results: The goodness-of-fit in the measurement model seemed adequate: 2(215) = 400.45 (p < .01); 2/df = 1.86; RMSEA = .096; IFI = .93; CFI = .92. The measures in the model were also deemed reliable and valid, except one item (PCom6) in perceived competence whose factor loading value (.31) was too low. Thus, this item was removed for further hypothesis testing. The test of the structural model showed that only autonomy in basic needs satisfaction significantly influenced intrinsic motivation (β = .50, t = 3.31), while perceived competence (β = .10, t = 0.87) and relatedness (β = .25, t = 1.63) were not, explaining 53% of the total variance of explained. Additionally, intrinsic motivation significantly influenced satisfaction (β = .80, t = 6.14), which in turn significantly influenced revisit intention (β = .77, t = 8.46), explaining 64% and 59% of total variance explained by their determinants, respectively.

Conclusion: The study delineated an effective model to present eSports events participants’ basic needs, motivation, satisfaction and revisit intention. It provided the empirical evidence to support the proposition of positive relations among these constructs under SDT and developed reliable and valid measuring scales for the model in the context of eSports. The findings will broaden the realm of self-determination theory application and provide insights for future studies in the field of eSports research.