Legitimacy of gaming development through framing: An insider perspective

This research note examines local community perspectives toward gaming development in China, in which gaming is often stigmatized as sinful. It develops a framework of socio-cultural acceptance of gaming development. The traditional view of the social and economic benefits of gaming development was extended to include the personal, cultural, and political aspects of gaming using a framing process in a qualitative inquiry. This research advances the literature by positing the critical role of framing with regard to cognitive, normative, and regulatory legitimacies. It builds a comprehensive framework of the legitimacy of developing social acceptance for controversial tourism products, such as gaming. The study concludes with implications for theory and practice, limitations and future research directions.