Effect of Status-based Gamification on User Engagement: Evidence from A Randomized Field Experiment

Although a plethora of mobile applications (Online platforms) use game design elements that imbibe a sense of excitement and achievement, there appears to be a research gap addressing the user’s susceptibility to Status Characteristics of the opponent in (dyadic) competitive digital environments. Through the online experiment on a mobile e-learning application, we are seeking to assess whether diffuse (e.g., gender) and specific status characteristics (e.g., competency) of the opponent influence user engagement. This research study aims to contribute to the literature on online gamification, user engagement, and status characteristic theory

What are Social Information Signals Worth? Evidence from Randomized Field Experiments

In this study, we examine how does social information drive user engagement in e-learning platforms. We model two distinct outcomes related to user engagement: content consumption CC (e.g., watching a video) and content organization CO (e.g., adding a video to a playlist). We examine two types of social information signals, which are distinguished based on the source: peer actions (PA) and expert recommendation (ER). We employ a series of field experiments on a mobile e-learning application to tease out the causal influence of PA and ER information signals on CC and CO. Our results indicate that the two information signals exert uneven influence, driving CC but not CO actions of user. These finding presents an important boundary condition for the influence of social information signals across the user engagement ladder. The study contributes to recent discussion on the potential value and impact of revealing information signals about other users’ behavior in digital platforms