Examining the User Engagement on Mind-Sport Online Games: A Social Cognitive Theory and Word-of-Mouth Based Model Proposal

Online gamers have increased exponentially in the last few years in all types of online games, including mind-sport games. These games, like Bridge or Chess, have been traditionally played face-to-face. Nowadays more and more players prefer to use online platforms to play mind-sport games. Previous studies have investigated different aspects of online games and even a few on mind-sport games. However, the frameworks WOM (Word-of-Mouth) and SCT (Social Cognitive Theory) have been sparsely used in this context. In this manner, the present article proposes two objectives: (1) using the SCT in order to analyse the impact of the sociological factor on user engagement in mind-sport online games and (2) analysing how the WOM affects user engagement in mind-sport online games. Specifically, the proposed PLS-SEM model is defined by combining five constructs from these frameworks: (1) health consciousness, (2) WOM and emotional behaviour, (3) self-efficacy, (4) cognitive engagement, and (5) behavioural intention. The findings reveal that health consciousness affects WOM and emotional behaviour in a positive way as players desire well-being. Also, WOM and emotional behaviour affect cognitive engagement, as positive comments encourage high-skill gamers in mind sports. Finally, this study shows how the environmental factor of SCT is represented by WOM and emotional behaviour in an indirect way and the personal factor represented by self-efficacy in a direct way to positively influence behaviour intention.