Understanding professional gaming - A comparative analysis of Korean and Western organisations

Sammanfattning: In this thesis we seek to explore how "Professional Gaming Teams" in Korea and the western world are different from each other, and the underlying reasons for those differences. We perform an extensive pre-study that provides a deeper understanding of the eSport environment, identify theoretical frameworks to explain the differences between teams, and apply these frameworks to explain how the external environment affects the internal culture of the teams. In order to do this, we conduct critical interviews with game developers, tournament organizers, and team managers. We combine these sources with podcasts, news articles, and other types of media produced by the very active eSport community to create a foundational understanding of a market that has received next to no attention in academic circles. We employ McKinsey's 7s framework to show how the internal workings of Professional Gaming Teams in Korea are different from those in the west. We also utilize PESTLE model, as well as Porter's Five Forces to analyze the external environment of the eSport market. These three models provide a holistic approach and a broad understanding of forces that were, until recently, unexplored in the eSport industry. The results of our thesis show that it is external influences that cause Korean and Western teams to focus on different dimensions of their organizations. In particular we identify two critical success factors "Player performance" and a "Sustainable Value Offer" imposed by external forces as absolute requirements in respectively the Korean and Western environments. Although both of these factors are of importance for all eSport teams, in Korea player performance is an indispensable requirement to success whereas in the Western scene providing a "Sustainable Value Offer" is the number one requisite. This major difference in market requirements is identified as a root explanation for most of the internal contrasts between Korean and Western teams. Our findings also show that given the increasing bridges being built between both scenes, Korean and Western professional gaming teams will find the need to evolve their organizations into being able to handle both critical success factors simultaneously if they are to remain successful in the long-run.