eSports as a promissory economy: An empirical study on how accounting can be used to enable the commercial development of emerging sports

Abstract: In this paper, it is examined how accounting can be used to enable the commercial development of emerging sports. Building on Mouritsen and Kreiner's (2016) findings regarding the relationship between accounting and decision as promises, the eSports industry is identified as the case of a promissory economy, where promising agents construct a "regime of hope" (Brown, 2005), which pictures a thriving future for the industry. This future vision is based on the growing number of fans that follow eSports and the enormous amounts of investments that are flowing into the industry. This vision is contrasted by the rather disillusioning reality that many organisations in the eSports industry are facing. Many of them are struggling to monetize their business model and no clear pathway is apparent for how this could be changed. In order to enroll various actors for the industry that are required to commercially develop it further, the promising agents utilise certain accounting indicators strategically, when picturing the industry. This highlights the performativity of accounting in this context and illustrates how institutional logics can be used to depict the reality more advantageously. Furthermore, it shows how a promissory economy can actually be constructed and which conditions are favouring the effectiveness of this construction.