The Sugar\u27d Game before Thee : Gamification Revisited

Gamification, the application of game elements to nongame contexts, was recently a subject of great interest in the library literature, inspiring a number of articles. That interest tapered off in tandem with gamification’s wider decline, but signs point to its reemergence. Anticipating renewed interest in gamification, the authors reviewed the literature to determine what has—and has not—been examined by librarianship’s proponents of gamification. They found serious concerns regarding gamification’s practical and ethical limitations. Moreover, the authors believe that the purported benefits of gamification are more readily found in its progenitor—games

Digital technologies for behavioral change in sustainability domains: a systematic mapping review

Sustainability research has emerged as an interdisciplinary area of knowledge about how to achieve sustainable development, while political actions toward the goal are still in their infancy. A sustainable world is mirrored by a healthy environment in which humans can live without jeopardizing the survival of future generations. The main aim of this contribution was to carry out a systematic mapping (SM) of the applications of digital technologies in promoting environmental sustainability. From a rigorous search of different databases, a set of more than 1000 studies was initially retrieved and then, following screening criteria based on the ROSES (RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses) procedure, a total of N = 37 studies that met the eligibility criteria were selected. The studies were coded according to different descriptive variables, such as digital technology used for the intervention, type of sustainable behavior promoted, research design, and population for whom the intervention was applied. Results showed the emergence of three main clusters of Digital Technologies (i.e., virtual/immersive/augmented reality, gamification, and power-metering systems) and two main Sustainable Behaviors (SBs) (i.e., energy and water-saving, and pollution reduction). The need for a clearer knowledge of which digital interventions work and the reasons why they work (or do not work) does not emerge from the outcomes of this set of studies. Future studies on digital interventions should better detail intervention design characteristics, alongside the reasons underlying design choices, both behaviourally and technologically. This should increase the likelihood of the successful adoption of digital interventions promoting behavioral changes in a more sustainable direction

Strengthening the Customer Experience via Interactive Digital Tactics: Evaluating the Quantification of Self and Gamification

Managing customer interactions has evolved, with firms shifting their focus from simply “selling” to customers to instead building more meaningful personal relationships with them. A key part of this new thinking is the customer experience, involving interactions between a customer and brand that provoke a meaningful personal reaction, and often include the consumer playing an active role in tailoring the experience. I examine two interactive innovations, the quantification of self (QOS) and gamification, that are being utilized by marketers to enrich the customer experience. QOS involves the production of highly-detailed individualized performance metrics for personal activity monitoring. Gamification is the use of game design elements to enhance products and services. There is a significant overlap between the two, when gamification is based on QOS metrics. Both QOS and gamification are meant to deepen the consumer experience with a product/brand, in terms of more engagement and more personal benefits derived. In addition, both involve co-creation. My dissertation explores these marketing tactics and their impact on the customer experience. The purpose of essay one is to establish if QOS data, provided via a consumer product, positively impacts motivation toward a goal pursuit. I propose and show support for a mediation model that captures the psychological process underlying QOS’s positive motivational impact. My model suggests three factors mediate the impact of QOS on motivation: 1) feedback loop enhancement, 2) self-empowerment amplification, and 3) goal focus strengthening. This research suggests QOS-based consumer products used as part of a goal pursuit will provide the user with a more personally meaningful experience than a similar non-QOS product. The purpose of essay two is to understand the impact of QOS in wellness programs that are directed by a third party. Since an increase in perceived self-empowerment is found in essay one to be a critical mediating factor in the impact of QOS, this essay explores the hypothesis that QOS loses much of its appeal when run by a third party that is seen as having a power advantage. The theoretical framework for this essay draws from self-determination theory and the consumer empowerment literature. This research identifies an important boundary condition for the impact of QOS. Essay three examines the use of gamification in marketing contexts, including gamification’s impact on the gamified marketing activity itself (enjoyment, emotional attachment) as well as the potential spillover benefits for the brand associated with the activity. I also gauge potential moderators of gamification’s appeal, such as individual’s innate competitiveness and innate propensity for risk. My results suggest gamification has some ability to bolster anticipated enjoyment and interest in joining a marketing activity, though this can vary substantially due to innate personal characteristics and situational factors. No support was found for gamification’s ability to strengthen emotional engagement with the activity or the brand. Drawing from established theoretical foundations such as goal setting theory, self-determination theory and the consumer empowerment literature, these three essays extend marketing theory regarding how interactive, digital-based environments can help marketers strengthen the consumer experience. My research provides models to understand the meaningful benefits consumers derive from these marketing approaches. It also identifies important boundary conditions and modifiers, including innate personal characteristics and situational contexts. In my discussion of results, I provide applicable managerial insights for strengthening relationships between consumers and products/brands

The effects of game-based financial education : New survey evidence from lower-secondary school students in Finland

The authors of this article studied the effects of game-based financial education approaches using a sample of lower-secondary school students in Finland. The sample consisted of 640 students from 42 schools in different areas of the country. The authors focused on three different game-based interventions using a pre- and post-intervention survey design. They compared the effects of the interventions (and their combinations) to a control group that received only traditional teaching. They found robust effects with respect to knowledge gained from game-based approaches. However, the effects on self-reported financial behaviors were weak.© 2022 The author(s). Published with license by Taylor & francis Group, llc. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

What Drives Individual to Adopt Fintech: Extended TAM Model with Gender as Moderating Variable

Access to financial services is pivotal in improving welfare, reducing poverty, and accelerating financial inclusion in the emerging nation. This study analyzes the factors that drive consumer adoption of fintech by extending the TAM model with financial literacy and government support, as well as gender as moderating variable. Data was collected from 397 respondents in Indonesia and analyzed using SmartPLS 3.0. The result shows that perceived usefulness, ease of use, financial literacy, and government support significantly affect the adoption of fintech. The moderation analysis reveals that men perceive usefulness as more important for fintech adoption and ease of use for women.Access to financial services is pivotal in improving welfare, reducing poverty, and accelerating financial inclusion in the emerging nation. This study analyzes the factors that drive consumer adoption of fintech by extending the TAM model with financial literacy and government support, as well as gender as moderating variable. Data was collected from 397 respondents in Indonesia and analyzed using SmartPLS 3.0. The result shows that perceived usefulness, ease of use, financial literacy, and government support significantly affect the adoption of fintech. The moderation analysis reveals that men perceive usefulness as more important for fintech adoption and ease of use for women

Impacts of Hiding Friends’ Liked Content on User-Content Engagement across Newsfeed Channels

Social media platforms often distribute content through different newsfeed channels, most commonly, social networks, algorithmic recommendations and trending content. Prior literature has investigated each channel’s impact on user-content engagement. However, little is known about the relationships between these channels. We investigate the impacts of limiting content display from the social network channel on the quantity and diversity of user-engaged content across channels. We leverage a natural experiment, where a social media platform hides friends’ liked content from the social network channel, to identify the impacts. Results show that hiding friends’ liked content reduces the quantity of users’ content engagement on the entire platform. Across channels, users increase their engagement with trending content but decrease their engagement with algorithmic recommendations. Further, restricting exposure to friends’ liked content reduces the diversity of users’ content engagement. Our results highlight the intercorrelation of user-content engagement across newsfeed channels and provide insights for newsfeed designs

Unraveling the Effects of Mobile Application Usage on Users’ Health Status: Insights from Conservation of Resources Theory

Numerous studies have documented adverse consequences arising from increased technology usage and advocated for a reduction in such usage as a plausible remedy. However, such recommendations are often infeasible and oversimplistic given mounting evidence attesting to users’ growing reliance on technology in both their personal and professional lives. Building on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we construct a research model to explain how mobile application usage, as delineated by its breadth and depth, affects users’ nomophobia and sleep deprivation, which can have negative impacts on users’ health status. We also consider the moderating influence of physical activity in mitigating the effects of mobile application usage on users’ health. We validated our hypotheses via data collected by surveying 5,842 respondents. Empirical findings reveal that (1) nomophobia is positively influenced by mobile application usage breadth but negatively influenced by mobile application usage depth, (2) sleep deprivation is negatively influenced by mobile application usage breadth but positively influenced by mobile application usage depth, and (3) sleep deprivation and nomophobia negatively impact users’ health status, whereas (4) physical activity attenuates the impact of mobile application usage on sleep deprivation but not nomophobia. The findings from this study not only enrich the extant literature on the health outcomes of mobile application usage by unveiling the impact of mobile application usage patterns and physical activity on users’ health but they also inform practitioners on how calibrating usage breadth and depth, along with encouraging physical activity, can promote healthy habits among users