What is Motivation?

There have been many researchers who attempted to define motivation. As explained by Whiseand and Rush (1988), motivation is the willingness of an individual to do something and conditioned by actions to satisfy needs (Kian, Yusoff, & Rajah, 2014). More recently defined by Saraswathi (2011), motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort, toward

organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need.

According to Kian et al. (2014), most researchers agree that individuals’ motivations begin with cognitive recognition of a desire that ‘is not present at the time the individual noticed, followed by mental desire to achieve something, thus following by physical actions to obtain the desire.’

(Kian et al., 2014)

3.1.1. Uses and Gratification Theory on Twitch

One of the theories in the field of communications that focuses on social communications is the Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT). It is a theory which has been used in previous Twitch studies such as the one conducted by Hilvert-Bruce et al. (2018). This theory takes a functional approach to communications and media, stating that the media’s most important function is to fulfill the needs and motivations of an audience (Mehrad & Tajer, 2016).

According to Hilvert-Bruce et al. (2018) the theory originated from older theories about why people choose different types of media consumption (Rubin, 2009) which also includes live-streaming on twitch and Electronic Sports (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017). Research in UGT found that in the case of playing video games, the social factor was a critical motivational factor for

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young people, and although video games do not completely comply with the classic idea of media, it was concluded that using UGT was still applicable in this context. (Sherry, Lucas, Greenberg, & Lachlan, 2006).

3.1.2. Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation in Live-Streaming on Twitch

Used in conjunction with the UGT to study the social factor as a motivation, the theories of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations were applied to analyze the streamers’ specific needs. A previous study conducted by Mysirlaki and Paraskeva (2010) provided evidence of a connection between developing a community and intrinsic motivations. According to Ryan and Deci (2000), an intrinsic motivation is doing an activity for an innate or internal satisfaction while extrinsic motivation is doing an action to obtain some separate outcome stemming from external sources such as society or social interaction (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Furthermore, Ryan and Deci argue that a person’s motivation is driven by the need to keep their self-confidence or self-worth up.

Intrinsic motivation is characterized by a high degree of autonomy referring to behaviors originating from innate interest or enjoyment of the action itself (Zhao et al., 2017). Extrinsic motivation deals with actions initiated and maintained by external contingencies such as rewards or punishments, and can also be controlled (Nie, Chua, Yeung, Ryan, & Chan, 2015).

Zhao et al. (2017) showed that Twitch Streamers could be subject to intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, which would result in their continuing to broadcast their Twitch streams.

Zhao et al. outlined 3 intrinsic and 4 extrinsic motivations.

Intrinsic

Challenge Seeking: When streamers get motivated and excited from overcoming challenges they encounter, as well as completing difficult tasks. When livestreaming their

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gameplay, streamers may come across several challenges. Sometimes their own spectators may request a challenge or to perform a certain task. Completing these challenges and requests, the streamer will be encouraged to solve more problems and pursue excitement. This in turn influences the streamers’ overall performance as well as the motivation to want to continue streaming further.

Enjoyment of Task: This refers to enjoyment that streamers gain from

broadcasting on Twitch. Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, and Tighe (1994) defined enjoyment as the ‘self-expression and self-entertainment motivation orientations gained from task performance’ (as cited in Zhao et al., 2017). The enjoyment or lack of it impacts the performance and perceptions of broadcasting on Twitch.

Self-presentation: refers to streamers’ desire to present themselves through

engagement on Twitch channels. According to Kamau (2009) and Leary (1996), the behavior of self-presentation is establishing an identity in a specific environment, for example establishing a desired image to the spectators. Two motivations related to self-presentation were proposed by Schlenker (2003). The first is the wish to influence the spectators and obtain rewards through their self-presentation, for example when streamers show positive personality traits to get the affection of the spectators. The second is the desire to show off an image to form a unique identity and create connections with people who are similar to them. In the context of this study, live streamers may achieve self-presentation through Twitch which in turn motivate them to want to stream further.

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Extrinsic

Anticipated reward: When streamers anticipate obtaining extrinsic rewards such

as financial (salaries, promotions, additional benefits) or non-financial (job security, positive social environment) rewards. A study on transactional virtual communities conducted by Sun, Fang, and Lim (2014) found that there was a positive correlation between achieving goals and external benefits. Thus, in the context of this study, Twitch affiliates would find external benefits as a motivator for their continuing streaming on the platform.

Self-Esteem: This refers to the degree of the reputation and status gained by the

streamers. Self-esteem is the individual’s evaluation of him or herself, as well as the evaluation of their own personal worth (Sheldon, 2004). In a study by Kuo and Feng (2013), results showed relationships between community interaction and community engagement on self-esteem benefits, thus affecting community commitments and impacting oppositional brand loyalty. When applied to Twitch affiliate streamers, establishing their reputation and status on their channel as well as community would influence their motivation to stream.

Social Benefits: the extent of improving social relationships through streaming.

According to Zhou, Jin, and Fang (2014) emphasis of social benefits are an evaluation of benefits originating from gaining the reason to socialize and establish social networks.

Moreover, they indicated that these social benefits have a positive association on

satisfaction, therefore it would also influence the motivation to continue streaming. These studies suggested that live streamers receive social benefits from interacting with their spectators and creating their own networks in turn influencing their motivation to stream.

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Feedback: the extent to which feedback from spectators received by the live

streamers affect their motivation to stream. In a study by Han, Min, and Lee (2015) on Twitter users found feedback having significant positive effects on the user’s sense of social presence in turn fulfilling their desire for connecting with others and enjoyment. In the context of live streamers, they would receive feedback from their spectators to which they can also reply and give feedback back to them. This would result in influencing the live streamers’ motivation to stream.

To summarize, it is suggested that Twitch could satisfy intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of live streamers, performance, expectancies, as well as perceptions of platform’s attractiveness (Zhao et al., 2017).