A Case Study of Factors Impacting Aspiring E-sports Athletes in South Korea

This study examines the structural relationships of factors like attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and career pursuit intentions among aspiring e-sports athletes using the theory of planned behavior, and exploring the moderating influence of athletic identity on these relationships. We assessed the measurement scale’s validity and reliability with confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and correlational analysis. Structural equation modeling evaluated the effects of three factors – attitudes, subjective norms, and PBC – on career pursuit intentions. Additionally, a hierarchical regression analysis was performed to confirm the moderating effect of athletic identity. The results revealed positive impacts of attitudes (0.300, p<0.001), subjective norms (0.414, p<0.001), and perceived behavioral control (0.274, p<0.001) on career pursuit intentions. However, athletic identity did not moderate the relationships among the research variables. We confirmed that subjective norms were the most influential factor in improving career pursuit intentions; and, although PBC has been considered as a moderating variable, our study found that PBC was a direct determinant of career pursuit intentions.