J. Paschmann, Hernán A. Bruno, Harald J. van Heerde, Franziska Völckner, Kristina Klein
{"title":"EXPRESS: Driving Mobile App User Engagement through Gamification","authors":"J. Paschmann, Hernán A. Bruno, Harald J. van Heerde, Franziska Völckner, Kristina Klein","doi":"10.1177/00222437241275927","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Many mobile app providers offer their apps for free and base their business models on user engagement. However, declining app usage over time threatens the ability of apps to add business value. To keep users engaged, app providers use gamification, i.e., they use game elements (e.g., levels, points) in their non-game apps. Complementing traditional loyalty strategies that reward value-added activities (e.g., purchases) through value rewards, gamification rewards ongoing engagement through game elements. Thus, reward architectures of many apps have become hybrid, with value- and game-reward pursuit simultaneously driving engagement. However, it is unclear to what extent gamification helps to drive user engagement and add business value. To address this question, the authors study unique data from a gamified market research app comprising daily individual-level app usage observations of 18,952 users. The findings show that game rewards increase engagement significantly over and above value rewards, leading to a lift in business value, especially when users are in closer proximity to both types of rewards. However, the analysis also shows a dark side of gamification: when users enter a state of flow in the game, game engagement has a weaker effect on value-added engagement. The authors discuss implications for gamified reward architectures.","PeriodicalId":48465,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Marketing Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Marketing Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437241275927","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Many mobile app providers offer their apps for free and base their business models on user engagement. However, declining app usage over time threatens the ability of apps to add business value. To keep users engaged, app providers use gamification, i.e., they use game elements (e.g., levels, points) in their non-game apps. Complementing traditional loyalty strategies that reward value-added activities (e.g., purchases) through value rewards, gamification rewards ongoing engagement through game elements. Thus, reward architectures of many apps have become hybrid, with value- and game-reward pursuit simultaneously driving engagement. However, it is unclear to what extent gamification helps to drive user engagement and add business value. To address this question, the authors study unique data from a gamified market research app comprising daily individual-level app usage observations of 18,952 users. The findings show that game rewards increase engagement significantly over and above value rewards, leading to a lift in business value, especially when users are in closer proximity to both types of rewards. However, the analysis also shows a dark side of gamification: when users enter a state of flow in the game, game engagement has a weaker effect on value-added engagement. The authors discuss implications for gamified reward architectures.
期刊介绍:
JMR is written for those academics and practitioners of marketing research who need to be in the forefront of the profession and in possession of the industry"s cutting-edge information. JMR publishes articles representing the entire spectrum of research in marketing. The editorial content is peer-reviewed by an expert panel of leading academics. Articles address the concepts, methods, and applications of marketing research that present new techniques for solving marketing problems; contribute to marketing knowledge based on the use of experimental, descriptive, or analytical techniques; and review and comment on the developments and concepts in related fields that have a bearing on the research industry and its practices.