Author(s)

Weiwei Wang ¹, Jingyi Zhou ¹, Caiyue Jing ¹, Yuzhen Jin ¹, Yuhan Ji ¹, Jiaying He ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin, 300222, China

Corresponding Author

Weiwei Wang

ABSTRACT

Chinese role-playing game (RPG) exports are plagued by cultural discount and resource misallocation. Existing research struggles to explain the causal complexity underlying the formation of their international competitiveness. Grounded in cultural discount theory and the resource-based view, this study constructs a framework of culture-centric core with factor combination adaptation and adopts the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to analyze 154 overseas player datasets. The findings reveal that cultural-gameplay integration is a quasi-necessary condition for high competitiveness, while technological factors only play a supporting role. Three equivalent high-competitiveness paths are identified: culture + narrative integration, culture + IP linkage, and culture + localization adaptation. Two failure modes are also detected: lack of culture + technological misallocation and lack of culture + IP redundancy. This study uncovers the configurational mechanism of multi-factor synergetic adaptation and provides differentiated overseas expansion pathways for developers with varying resource endowments.

KEYWORDS

Chinese RPG games; international competitiveness; cultural discount; configurational analysis; fsQCA; overseas expansion paths

CITE THIS PAPER

Weiwei Wang, Jingyi Zhou, Caiyue Jing, Yuzhen Jin, Yuhan Ji, Jiaying He. Research on the Configurational Paths of International Competitiveness of Chinese RPG Games. Information and Knowledge Management (2026). Vol. 7, No.1, 26-33. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/infkm.2026.070104.

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