IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v32y2021i3p950-966.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of an Augmented-Reality Game on Local Businesses: A Study of Pokémon Go on Restaurants

Author

Listed:
  • Vandith Pamuru

    (Indian School of Business, 500111 Hyderabad, India)

  • Warut Khern-am-nuai

    (Indian School of Business, 500111 Hyderabad, India)

  • Karthik Kannan

    (Indian School of Business, 500111 Hyderabad, India)

Abstract

Pokémon Go, a mobile game that utilizes augmented reality (AR) technology, garnered tremendous public interest upon release with an average of 20 million active daily users. The game combines geospatial elements with gamification practices to incentivize user movement in the physical world. In this study, we examine the potential externalities that such incentives may have on associated businesses. Particularly, we study the impact of Pokémon Go on local restaurants by using online reviews as a proxy for consumer engagement and perception. We treat the release of Pokémon Go as a natural experiment and study the postrelease impact on associated restaurants. We find that restaurants associated with Pokémon Go do indeed enjoy a higher level of consumer engagement and more positive consumer perception. In addition, we find that the characteristics of a restaurant moderate these effects significantly. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to examine the economic implications of augmented-reality applications. Therefore, our research lays the foundation for future studies to examine how augmented-reality applications affect consumer economic behavior. Our study also provides insights for business owners and policymakers regarding the potential value of being associated with AR-based applications.

Suggested Citation

  • Vandith Pamuru & Warut Khern-am-nuai & Karthik Kannan, 2021. "The Impact of an Augmented-Reality Game on Local Businesses: A Study of Pokémon Go on Restaurants," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 950-966, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:32:y:2021:i:3:p:950-966
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2021.1004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2021.1004
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.2021.1004?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Felix, Reto & Hinsch, Chris, 2019. "Augmented reality marketing: How mobile AR-apps can improve brands through inspiration," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 43-53.
    2. Florent Sari, 2020. "Spatial disparities in accessibility to recreational amenities: the case of Pokémon GO," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 64(2), pages 389-419, April.
    3. Tim Hilken & Ko de Ruyter & Mathew Chylinski & Dominik Mahr & Debbie I. Keeling, 2017. "Augmenting the eye of the beholder: exploring the strategic potential of augmented reality to enhance online service experiences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 884-905, November.
    4. Martin A. Nowak & Karl Sigmund, 2005. "Evolution of indirect reciprocity," Nature, Nature, vol. 437(7063), pages 1291-1298, October.
    5. Jessen, Alexander & Hilken, Tim & Chylinski, Mathew & Mahr, Dominik & Heller, Jonas & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & de Ruyter, Ko, 2020. "The playground effect: How augmented reality drives creative customer engagement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 85-98.
    6. Michael Luca, 2011. "Reviews, Reputation, and Revenue: The Case of Yelp.com," Harvard Business School Working Papers 12-016, Harvard Business School, revised Mar 2016.
    7. Xianghua Lu & Sulin Ba & Lihua Huang & Yue Feng, 2013. "Promotional Marketing or Word-of-Mouth? Evidence from Online Restaurant Reviews," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 596-612, September.
    8. Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & He, Jun & Ro, Young K., 2018. "Antecedents to the adoption of augmented reality smart glasses: A closer look at privacy risks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 374-384.
    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. Yipu Deng & Jinyang Zheng & Warut Khern-am-nuai & Karthik Kannan, 2022. "More than the Quantity: The Value of Editorial Reviews for a User-Generated Content Platform," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6865-6888, September.
    2. Kaichen Zhang & Zixuan Yuan & Hui Xiong, 2023. "The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Market Equilibrium: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Papers 2311.07071, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    3. Muhammad Zia Hydari & Idris Adjerid & Aaron D. Striegel, 2023. "Health Wearables, Gamification, and Healthful Activity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(7), pages 3920-3938, July.
    4. 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).

    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. Jayaswal, Pragya & Parida, Biswajita, 2023. "The role of augmented reality in redefining e-tailing: A review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Stefan Hoffmann & Tom Joerß & Robert Mai & Payam Akbar, 2022. "Augmented reality-delivered product information at the point of sale: when information controllability backfires," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 743-776, July.
    3. Vieira, Valter Afonso & Rafael, Diego Nogueira & Agnihotri, Raj, 2022. "Augmented reality generalizations: A meta-analytical review on consumer-related outcomes and the mediating role of hedonic and utilitarian values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 170-184.
    4. Gong, Taeshik & Park, JungKun, 2023. "Effects of augmented reality technology characteristics on customer citizenship behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Diksha Sharma, 2023. "Unveiling Augmented Reality Trends in the Retail Industry: A Systematic and Bibliometric Review," Paradigm, , vol. 27(2), pages 192-210, December.
    6. Yang, Shuai & Carlson, Jeffrey R. & Chen, Sixing, 2020. "How augmented reality affects advertising effectiveness: The mediating effects of curiosity and attention toward the ad," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    7. Arghashi, Vahideh & Yuksel, Cenk Arsun, 2022. "Interactivity, Inspiration, and Perceived Usefulness! How retailers’ AR-apps improve consumer engagement through flow," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    8. Chylinski, Mathew & Heller, Jonas & Hilken, Tim & Keeling, Debbie Isobel & Mahr, Dominik & de Ruyter, Ko, 2020. "Augmented reality marketing: A technology-enabled approach to situated customer experience," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 374-384.
    9. Javornik, Ana & Marder, Ben & Pizzetti, Marta & Warlop, Luk, 2021. "Augmented self - The effects of virtual face augmentation on consumers' self-concept," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 170-187.
    10. Recalde, Daniella & Jai, Tunmin Catherine & Jones, Robert Paul, 2024. "I can find the right product with AR! The mediation effects of shopper engagement on intent to purchase beauty products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. 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.
    12. Smink, Anne R. & van Reijmersdal, Eva A. & van Noort, Guda & Neijens, Peter C., 2020. "Shopping in augmented reality: The effects of spatial presence, personalization and intrusiveness on app and brand responses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 474-485.
    13. Hinsch, Chris & Felix, Reto & Rauschnabel, Philipp A., 2020. "Nostalgia beats the wow-effect: Inspiration, awe and meaningful associations in augmented reality marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    14. Qin, Hong & Osatuyi, Babajide & Xu, Lu, 2021. "How mobile augmented reality applications affect continuous use and purchase intentions: A cognition-affect-conation perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    15. Kowalczuk, Pascal & Siepmann (née Scheiben), Carolin & Adler, Jost, 2021. "Cognitive, affective, and behavioral consumer responses to augmented reality in e-commerce: A comparative study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 357-373.
    16. Carsten D. Schultz & Björn Gorlas, 2023. "Magic mirror on the wall: Cross-buying at the point of sale," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1677-1700, September.
    17. Joerß, Tom & Hoffmann, Stefan & Mai, Robert & Akbar, Payam, 2021. "Digitalization as solution to environmental problems? When users rely on augmented reality-recommendation agents," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 510-523.
    18. Hsu, Sheila Hsuan-Yu & Tsou, Hung-Tai & Chen, Ja-Shen, 2021. "“Yes, we do. Why not use augmented reality?†customer responses to experiential presentations of AR-based applications," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    19. Poushneh, Atieh, 2021. "How close do we feel to virtual product to make a purchase decision? Impact of perceived proximity to virtual product and temporal purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    20. Fan, Xiaojun & Chai, Zeli & Deng, Nianqi & Dong, Xuebing, 2020. "Adoption of augmented reality in online retailing and consumers’ product attitude: A cognitive perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).

    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:inm:orisre:v:32:y:2021:i:3:p:950-966. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.