Deriving gamers' subjective well-being through satisfaction, cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement: Symmetrical and asymmetrical approaches

This study develops and tests the conceptual model by delineating eSports gamers' satisfaction as a pertinent driver of subjective well-being through the mediating role of gamers' cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement using broaden-and-build theory. We collected data from 290 respondents in Malaysia and analyzed them through symmetric-based PLS-SEM and asymmetric-based fsQCA approaches. PLS-SEM-findings display that gamers' satisfaction and ensuing engagement have a positive significant relationship with gamers' subjective well-being. PLS-SEM-findings exhibit that cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement of eSports gamers has significant mediating relationship between eSports gamer's satisfaction and their well-being. The fsQCA-findings ascertain six necessary conditions and four sufficient-combinations of factors to develop well-being. This research can aid marketers in understanding the eSports gamer's satisfaction in developing their cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement and well-being. We enhance our research by combining both symmetric and asymmetric methodologies, resulting in significant consequences for both scholars and professionals.