IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v132y2021icp170-185.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing user engagement: The role of gamification in mobile apps

Author

Listed:
  • Bitrián, Paula
  • Buil, Isabel
  • Catalán, Sara

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly making use of gamification to enhance users’ engagement with their mobile apps. However, more research into the mechanisms that facilitate user engagement and its consequences is needed. Drawing on the self-system model of motivational development, this study investigates how gamification might foster user engagement and positive marketing outcomes. Data from 276 users of a mobile gamified app were analyzed using partial least squares regression. The results showed that gamification increases user engagement through satisfaction of the needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness. User engagement, in turn, leads to greater intention to use, disseminate WOM about, and to positively rate, the app. Finally, this study provides a number of theoretical and practical implications that can help developers design more effective gamified mobile apps.

Suggested Citation

  • Bitrián, Paula & Buil, Isabel & Catalán, Sara, 2021. "Enhancing user engagement: The role of gamification in mobile apps," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 170-185.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:132:y:2021:i:c:p:170-185
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321002666
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jang, Seongsoo & Kitchen, Philip Jame & Kim, Jinwon, 2018. "The effects of gamified customer benefits and characteristics on behavioral engagement and purchase: Evidence from mobile exercise application uses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 250-259.
    2. Hammedi, Wafa & Leclercq, Thomas & Poncin, Ingrid & Alkire (Née Nasr), Linda, 2021. "Uncovering the dark side of gamification at work: Impacts on engagement and well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 256-269.
    3. Thomas Leclercq & Wafa Hammedi & Ingrid Poncin, 2018. "The Boundaries of Gamification for Engaging Customers: Effects of Losing a Contest in Online Co-creation Communities," Post-Print hal-02115858, HAL.
    4. Eisingerich, Andreas B. & Marchand, André & Fritze, Martin P. & Dong, Lin, 2019. "Hook vs. hope: How to enhance customer engagement through gamification," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 200-215.
    5. Anita Pansari & V. Kumar, 2017. "Customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and consequences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 294-311, May.
    6. Seongsoo Jang & Philip Kitchen & Jinwon Kim, 2018. "The effects of gamified customer benefits and characteristics on behavioral engagement and purchase: Evidence from mobile exercise application uses," Post-Print hal-02014162, HAL.
    7. Soumya Ray & Sung S. Kim & James G. Morris, 2014. "The Central Role of Engagement in Online Communities," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(3), pages 528-546, September.
    8. Feng, Wenting & Tu, Rungting & Hsieh, Peishan, 2020. "Can gamification increases consumers’ engagement in fitness apps? The moderating role of commensurability of the game elements," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. Ho, Mia Hsiao-Wen & Chung, Henry F.L., 2020. "Customer engagement, customer equity and repurchase intention in mobile apps," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 13-21.
    10. Macey, William H. & Schneider, Benjamin, 2008. "The Meaning of Employee Engagement," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 3-30, March.
    11. Mitchell, Robert & Schuster, Lisa & Jin, Hyun Seung, 2020. "Gamification and the impact of extrinsic motivation on needs satisfaction: Making work fun?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 323-330.
    12. Sungho Park & Sachin Gupta, 2012. "Handling Endogenous Regressors by Joint Estimation Using Copulas," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 567-586, July.
    13. Friedrich, Julia & Becker, Michael & Kramer, Frederik & Wirth, Markus & Schneider, Martin, 2020. "Incentive design and gamification for knowledge management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 341-352.
    14. Shmueli, Galit & Ray, Soumya & Velasquez Estrada, Juan Manuel & Chatla, Suneel Babu, 2016. "The elephant in the room: Predictive performance of PLS models," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4552-4564.
    15. Heather L. O'Brien & Elaine G. Toms, 2010. "The development and evaluation of a survey to measure user engagement," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(1), pages 50-69, January.
    16. Hsieh, Sara H. & Chang, Aihwa, 2016. "The Psychological Mechanism of Brand Co-creation Engagement," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 13-26.
    17. Mulcahy, Rory & Russell-Bennett, Rebekah & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2020. "Designing gamified apps for sustainable consumption: A field study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 377-387.
    18. Oppong-Tawiah, Divinus & Webster, Jane & Staples, Sandy & Cameron, Ann-Frances & Ortiz de Guinea, Ana & Hung, Tam Y., 2020. "Developing a gamified mobile application to encourage sustainable energy use in the office," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 388-405.
    19. Höllig, Christoph E. & Tumasjan, Andranik & Welpe, Isabell M., 2020. "Individualizing gamified systems: The role of trait competitiveness and leaderboard design," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 288-303.
    20. Syrjälä, Henna & Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Luomala, Harri T. & Joelsson, Tapani N. & Könnölä, Kaisa & Mäkilä, Tuomas, 2020. "Gamified package: Consumer insights into multidimensional brand engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 423-434.
    21. Robson, Karen & Plangger, Kirk & Kietzmann, Jan H. & McCarthy, Ian & Pitt, Leyland, 2016. "Game on: Engaging customers and employees through gamification," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 29-36.
    22. Axel Berger & Tobias Schlager & David E. Sprott & Andreas Herrmann, 2018. "Gamified interactions: whether, when, and how games facilitate self–brand connections," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 652-673, July.
    23. Xi, Nannan & Hamari, Juho, 2020. "Does gamification affect brand engagement and equity? A study in online brand communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 449-460.
    24. Hwang, Jiyoung & Choi, Laee, 2020. "Having fun while receiving rewards?: Exploration of gamification in loyalty programs for consumer loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 365-376.
    25. Kai Huotari & Juho Hamari, 2017. "A definition for gamification: anchoring gamification in the service marketing literature," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 27(1), pages 21-31, February.
    26. Liu, Jianwei & Zhang, Xiaofei & Meng, Fanbo & Lai, Kee-hung, 2020. "Deploying gamification to engage physicians in an online health community: An operational paradox," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    27. Leclercq, Thomas & Hammedi, Wafa & Poncin, Ingrid, 2018. "The Boundaries of Gamification for Engaging Customers: Effects of Losing a Contest in Online Co-creation Communities," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 82-101.
    28. Heather L. O'Brien & Elaine G. Toms, 2010. "The development and evaluation of a survey to measure user engagement," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(1), pages 50-69, January.
    29. Rungting Tu & Peishan Hsieh & Wenting Feng, 2019. "Walking for fun or for “likes”? The impacts of different gamification orientations of fitness apps on consumers’ physical activities," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 682-693, December.
    30. Shampy Kamboj & Shruti Rana & Vinayak A. Drave, 2020. "Factors Driving Consumer Engagement and Intentions with Gamification of Mobile Apps," Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), IGI Global, vol. 18(2), pages 17-35, April.
    31. Xu, Feifei & Buhalis, Dimitrios & Weber, Jessika, 2017. "Serious games and the gamification of tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 244-256.
    32. Högberg, Johan & Ramberg, Marcus Olsson & Gustafsson, Anders & Wästlund, Erik, 2019. "Creating brand engagement through in-store gamified customer experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 122-130.
    33. J. H. Jung & Christoph Schneider & Joseph Valacich, 2010. "Enhancing the Motivational Affordance of Information Systems: The Effects of Real-Time Performance Feedback and Goal Setting in Group Collaboration Environments," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 724-742, April.
    34. Tu, Rungting & Hsieh, Peishan & Feng, Wenting, 2019. "Walking for fun or for “likes”? The impacts of different gamification orientations of fitness apps on consumers’ physical activities," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 682-693.
    35. Heather L. O'Brien & Elaine G. Toms, 2008. "What is user engagement? A conceptual framework for defining user engagement with technology," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 59(6), pages 938-955, April.
    36. Wolf, Tobias & Weiger, Welf H. & Hammerschmidt, Maik, 2020. "Experiences that matter? The motivational experiences and business outcomes of gamified services," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 353-364.
    37. Marko Sarstedt & Christian M Ringle & Jun-Hwa Cheah & Hiram Ting & Ovidiu I Moisescu & Lacramioara Radomir, 2020. "Structural model robustness checks in PLS-SEM," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(4), pages 531-554, June.
    38. Hofacker, Charles F. & de Ruyter, Ko & Lurie, Nicholas H. & Manchanda, Puneet & Donaldson, Jeff, 2016. "Gamification and Mobile Marketing Effectiveness," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 25-36.
    39. Necmi K. Avkiran & Christian M. Ringle (ed.), 2018. "Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-3-319-71691-6, April.
    40. Gutt, Dominik & von Rechenberg, Tobias & Kundisch, Dennis, 2020. "Goal achievement, subsequent user effort and the moderating role of goal difficulty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 277-287.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kuen-Cheng Lee & I-Hsiung Chang & Tsung-Jen Wu & Ru-Si Chen, 2022. "The Moderating Role of Perceived Interactivity in the Relationship Between Online Customer Experience and Behavioral Intentions to Use Parenting Apps for Taiwanese Preschool Parents," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    2. Dzandu, Michael D. & Hanu, Charles & Amegbe, Hayford, 2022. "Gamification of mobile money payment for generating customer value in emerging economies: The social impact theory perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    3. Hatice Doğan-Südaş & Ali Kara & Emre Karaca, 2023. "Effects of Gamified Mobile Apps on Purchase Intentions and Word-of-Mouth Engagement: Implications for Sustainability Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, July.
    4. Peng, Hui & Lu, Yaobin & Gupta, Sumeet, 2023. "Promoting value emergence through digital platform ecosystems: Perspectives on resource integration in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    5. Soren, Anup Anurag & Chakraborty, Shibashish, 2023. "The formation of habit and word-of-mouth intention of over-the-top platforms," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    6. Christos Ourdas & Stavros Ponis, 2023. "Evaluating the Effects of Gamification in Behavioural Change: A Proposed SEM-Based Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-31, March.
    7. Qian, Tyreal Yizhou & Matz, Robbie & Luo, Lei & Xu, Chenglong, 2022. "Gamification for value creation and viewer engagement in gamified livestreaming services: The moderating role of gender in esports," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 482-494.
    8. Ahn, Suhyoung & Ellie Jin, Byoungho & Seo, Hyesim, 2024. "Why do people interact and buy in the Metaverse? Self-Expansion perspectives and the impact of hedonic adaptation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    9. Ziheng Zhang & Rui Patricio & Gianluca Carella & Francesco Zurlo, 2022. "Supporting a Sustainable and Engaging Online Transition for Co-Design through Gamification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-22, May.
    10. Ho, Xuan Huong & Nguyen, Dong Phong & Cheng, Julian Ming Sung & Le, Angelina Nhat Hanh, 2022. "Customer engagement in the context of retail mobile apps: A contingency model integrating spatial presence experience and its drivers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Fuyong Lu & Xintao Wang & Siheng Li & Qun Zhao, 2023. "How Mobile Health Livingstreaming Engages the Consumer-Insights from a Dual-Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.
    12. Tsai, Pei-Hsuan, 2024. "Exploring consumer purchase intention in cross-boundary retail alliances with gamified OMO virtual-physical fusion services," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    13. Mohit Jamwal & Munish Saini & Saikat Banerjee, 2024. "The paradox of youth’s online political party brand engagement on Facebook: a congruity theory perspective," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 21(2), pages 313-339, June.
    14. Cheung, Man Lai & Leung, Wilson K.S. & Aw, Eugene Cheng-Xi & Koay, Kian Yeik, 2022. "“I follow what you post!†: The role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs)," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Flacandji, Michaël & Vlad, Mariana & Lunardo, Renaud, 2024. "The effects of retail apps on shopping well-being and loyalty intention: A matter of competence more than autonomy," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sharma, Wamika & Lim, Weng Marc & Kumar, Satish & Verma, Aastha & Kumra, Rajeev, 2024. "Game on! A state-of-the-art overview of doing business with gamification," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    2. Dzandu, Michael D. & Hanu, Charles & Amegbe, Hayford, 2022. "Gamification of mobile money payment for generating customer value in emerging economies: The social impact theory perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    3. João M. Lopes & Sofia Gomes & Ivo Rodrigues, 2024. "Playing the gamification and co-creation game: a bibliometric literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 353-376, February.
    4. Hammedi, Wafa & Leclercq, Thomas & Poncin, Ingrid & Alkire (Née Nasr), Linda, 2021. "Uncovering the dark side of gamification at work: Impacts on engagement and well-being," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 256-269.
    5. Xi, Nannan & Hamari, Juho, 2020. "Does gamification affect brand engagement and equity? A study in online brand communities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 449-460.
    6. Abril, Carmen & Gimenez-Fernandez, Elena M. & Camacho-Miñano, María-del-Mar, 2024. "Using gamification to overcome innovation process challenges: A literature review and future agenda," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    7. Bekk, Magdalena & Eppmann, René & Klein, Kristina & Völckner, Franziska, 2022. "All that glitters is not gold: An investigation into the undesired effects of gamification and how to mitigate them through gamification design," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1059-1081.
    8. Thomas Leclercq & Ingrid Poncin & Wafa Hammedi, 2020. "Opening the black box of gameful experience: Implications for gamification process design," Post-Print hal-02510199, HAL.
    9. Leclercq, Thomas & Poncin, Ingrid & Hammedi, Wafa, 2020. "Opening the black box of gameful experience: Implications for gamification process design," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Lubart, Allan & Capelli, Sonia, 2024. "Gamification of the point of sale using hybrid-reality games: Non-players' negative influence on players' service experience," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    11. Syrjälä, Henna & Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Luomala, Harri T. & Joelsson, Tapani N. & Könnölä, Kaisa & Mäkilä, Tuomas, 2020. "Gamified package: Consumer insights into multidimensional brand engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 423-434.
    12. Zhou, Fei & Lin, Youhai & Mou, Jian & Cohen, Jason & Chen, Sihua, 2023. "Understanding the dark side of gamified interactions on short-form video platforms: Through a lens of expectations violations theory," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PB).
    13. Högberg, Johan & Ramberg, Marcus Olsson & Gustafsson, Anders & Wästlund, Erik, 2019. "Creating brand engagement through in-store gamified customer experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 122-130.
    14. Li, Mingwei & Lu, Man & Akram, Umair & Cheng, Shaoen, 2024. "Understanding how customer social capital accumulation in brand communities: A gamification affordance perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Wolf, Tobias & Weiger, Welf H. & Hammerschmidt, Maik, 2020. "Experiences that matter? The motivational experiences and business outcomes of gamified services," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 353-364.
    16. Feng, Wenting & Tu, Rungting & Hsieh, Peishan, 2020. "Can gamification increases consumers’ engagement in fitness apps? The moderating role of commensurability of the game elements," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    17. Behl, Abhishek & Jayawardena, Nirma & Pereira, Vijay & Islam, Nazrul & Giudice, Manlio Del & Choudrie, Jyoti, 2022. "Gamification and e-learning for young learners: A systematic literature review, bibliometric analysis, and future research agenda," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    18. Behl, Abhishek & Jayawardena, Nirma & Bhardwaj, Shikha & Pereira, Vijay & del Giudice, Manlio & Zhang, Justin, 2024. "Examining the failure of gamification in implementing innovation from the perspective of problematization in the retail sectors of emerging economies," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    19. Wolf, Tobias & Jahn, Steffen & Hammerschmidt, Maik & Weiger, Welf H., 2021. "Competition versus cooperation: How technology-facilitated social interdependence initiates the self-improvement chain," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 472-491.
    20. Lim, Weng Marc & Rasul, Tareq & Kumar, Satish & Ala, Mamun, 2022. "Past, present, and future of customer engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 439-458.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:132:y:2021:i:c:p:170-185. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.