ERNC22: Esports Research Network Conference 2022 “Sustainable Esports in the Digital Society” Jönköping International Business School Jönköping, Sweden, November 21-23, 2022

The Esports Research Network is delighted to announce our second conference "Sustainable Esports in the Digital Society" as a live in-person event in Jönköping, Sweden in November during DreamHack Week. Confernece is  21-23 November. Keynotes and moderated panels will be live streamed during the event. Attendees will also have the opportunity to attend and engage with esports and industry during DreamHack Winter 2022. Deadline for submission is July 30th 2022.  

Full conference website and submission guide is here: https://esportsresearch.net/ernc22/ We welcome abstracts on current research, research proposals, conceptual proposals, symposiums, workshops and panels. There are no membership fees to join the ERN and you don't have to be a member to join us at the conference. Apply to join us through our website and engage with the community in real time on our Discord server. 

With sustainability being a paramount topic in today’s consumption-minded society, this conference will focus on esports sustainability, or the ability of esports to keep developing and maintain the opportunities it presents for a better society. Creating a sustainable esports ecosystem goes beyond the economic perspective but requires the inclusion of social and environmental aspects (Nyström et al. 2022). ERNC22 will be held in Jönköping, the ‘City of DreamHack’ one of the most influential cities in esports history and for grassroot esports (McCauley et al. 2020). 

Esports is constantly evolving and changing. The impact of esports is far broader than just the categorization of it as competitive video games. Esports is truly digital and acts as a “total social fact” (Brock, 2017): it’s a cross-sectional phenomenon linking gaming, entertainment and media, culture and art, education, business and talent, diversity and inclusion, and sports. While esports has entered a phase of popularization and professionalization since the beginning of 2010 (Taylor, 2012), the question of its sustainability is becoming a major challenge (Scholz, 2020). Thereby, the esports ecosystem highlights the issues of sustainability for the digital society. Connected to this are the wider communities within games, streaming and  

On the outset, it appears that esports’ growth will continue for a long time due to developments such as mobile esports. However, a closer look into distinct ecosystems shows that esports is not always sustainable. Especially from a business and social perspective, examples like Overwatch are alarming (Ruotsalainen et al., 2022). While the esports industry is more than just the top professional teams, if many of these organizations are unable to create a sustainable business model, research must dig deeper to uncover why. There is a connection between professional and grassroots esports, however, it could be fostered even further and utilize the existing value co-creation (Kunz et al., 2021). In recent years, sustainability in esports research has mostly centered around economic aspects, while social issues are currently rising to the forefront. Still, topics on environmental and social sustainability are often neglected within esports and the wider gaming environment. 

Although this is similar in most digital ecosystems or platform economies, esports may highlight these issues even further (Partin, 2020). Therefore, this year’s Esports Research Network (ERN) Conference will focus on the topics of sustainability and the main tracks will be separated into economic sustainability, social sustainability, and environmental sustainability. We welcome submissions on esports but also those of relevance to the context. If you are unsure please feel free to contact us regarding potential topics. 

1.     Economic sustainability

Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Sustainable business models
• Long-term strategic management
• Creating an authentic organizational culture
• Fostering innovation to adapt to the fast-pace environment
• Expanding to emerging economies with a sustainable growth model
• Making marketing sustainable in a fast-paces sponsoring environment
• Connecting with grassroots esports and traditional sports clubs
• Sharing business models in a platform-dominated ecosystem
• Balancing standardization (industry norms) and flexibility of esports
• Career development and entrepreneurial opportunities for esports players
• Duality of governance in creating long-term structures and staying flexible
• Dealing with IP and ownership in esports in a sustainable way

2.     Social sustainability

Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Labour and employment conditions
• Health, illness, and injury
• Diversity and inclusion
• Mental health and burnout
• Prejudice, stigmas and inequalities (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism etc.)
• Discourse on ethics in esports
• Utilizing esports and games for training and education
• Performance optimization 

3.     Environmental sustainability

On this topic we encourage submissions beyond esports and to include the wider conversation around technology and gaming. Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Identifying the environmental footprint
• Creating visibility on ecological impact of esports
• Educating the esports audience
• Creating transparent standards on esports environmental impact
• Fostering proactivity for environmental sustainability
• Ecological impact of esports arenas or events
• Implementing environmental impact in the esports ecosystem
• Ways to reduce energy, avoid waste and recycling in esports
• Transforming the esports ecosystem towards a circular economy

References

Brock, T. (2017). Roger Caillois and e-sports: On the problems of treating play as work. Games and Culture, 12(4), 321-339.

Kunz, R. E., Roth, A., & Santomier, J. P. (2021). A perspective on value co-creation processes in eSports service ecosystems. Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal. 12 (1), 29-53.

McCauley, B., Tierney, K., & Tokbaeva, D. (2020). Shaping a regional offline esports market: understanding how Jönköping, the ‘city of dreamhack’, takes URL to IRL. International Journal on Media Management, 22(1), 30-48.

Nyström, A.-G., McCauley, B., Macey, J., Scholz, T. M., Besombes, N., Cestino, J., Hiltscher, J., Orme, S., Rumble, R., & Törhönen, M. (2022). Current issues of sustainability in esports. International Journal of Esports. https://www.ijesports.org/article/94/html

Partin, W. C. (2020). Bit by (twitch) bit:“platform capture” and the evolution of digital platforms. Social media+ society, 6(3), 1-12.

Ruotsalainen, M., Törhönen, M., & Karhulahti, V. M. (2022). Modes of esports engagement in Overwatch. Cham: Palgrave.

Scholz, T. M. (2020). Deciphering the world of eSports. International Journal on Media Management, 22(1), 1–12.

Taylor, T. L. (2012). Raising the stakes: E-Sports and the professionalization of computer gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Submission 

Submission deadline is 30th July 2022. Abstracts submitted after the deadline will not be considered. Please see key dates related to the submission, review, and registration process. Abstract submissions should be made through the EasyChair system. Importantly, please note the following conference policy: maximum of 1 paper first-authored and 3 papers co-authored.

Abstracts not complying with the guidelines provided on this page will bounce back before entering the review process and authors will be asked to resubmit, if there is enough time.

Abstracts of 750 words maximum (title, author names, references not included) should propose or detail a research work structured around scientific literature and qualitative and/or quantitative empirical data. A review of problematized literature providing conceptually updated knowledge may also be submitted. The word limit for submissions is 1000 so that authors can include the relevant references. Please ensure that the abstract is limited to 750 and that the references are included. 

Abstracts will be written in English, English being the language of expression of the conference, but participants from all countries are welcome.

All submissions will undergo a double-blinded peer-review process. Therefore the authors should remove any information that could give an indication of authorship.

Please submit your abstract in PDF-format.

Abstracts reflecting current or proposed research should be proposed according to the following format. Proposals referring to specific approaches (question reviews, inductive work, conceptual work etc.) may deviate from this framework, which is only intended to frame classic communication proposals.

Theoretical Background and Literature Review

Research Questions or Objectives

Method or Proposed Method 

Findings 

There are various types of abstracts possible: Completed Research, Work-in-Progress, Symposium, Workshop. One author must attend the conference in order to present. Accepted works will be grouped in sessions for presentation and discussions appropriate to the theme and topic of their work. PhD students as first authors are able to indicate this status if they wish to ensure that they are grouped with experienced researchers on their topic to maximise the benefits of discussions. 

Accepted works 

The abstract of 750 words maximum should include text only (i.e. pictures, figures and tables are excluded) and be written in Times New Roman text size 11, justified, single-spaced. APA referencing Style.