The Relationship Between Reward, Attitude and Intentions in a Gamified App Context

Gamification has become a popular marketing strategy with positive implications in various contexts. This paper examines the effect of a single gamification element (reward) on behavioural intentions through attitude. Furthermore, this study investigates the moderating influence of individuals’ perception of the ethical nature of rewards. Following a survey method, the data was received from 414 respondents using gamified e-commerce application (app). The analysis was done using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). This study revealed the positive and negative impact of rewards on behavioural intentions (app stickiness intention and app discontinuance intention). Results also show that the perceived ethicality of rewards significantly influences the relationship between rewards and negative attitude. The study makes a valuable contribution to the extant body of literature on gamification and e-commerce by empirically shedding light on the paucity of ethical perspectives on gamification in a gamified e-commerce app context. In addition, apart from prior studies which predominantly portray the positive implications of gamification, this study examined the bivalent effect of gamification element reward. It also provides some suggestions for improving gamified e-commerce business practices.