Gamified Change: The Transformative Impact of Reflection, Empowerment, and Gamification Motivation

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to explore how gamification drives transformative change in consumers. Doing so, an empowerment construct is conceptualized and introduced to the concept of transformative gamification, and the efficacy of the concept is evaluated using empirical data. A mixed methodology is used in which a gamified mobile app focusing on interactive stories is co‐designed and tested in a quasi‐experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of the app as a transformative gamified service in helping university students replace dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies with functional ones (as the target behavior). The findings indicate that storytelling, reflection, and empowerment are the three key drivers of change in consumers' behaviors in transformative gamification services. In addition, the results of this study led to the introduction of the cycles of change as a practical approach in driving behavior change in gamified services. The results have implications for consumer behavior through understanding the process of behavior change in gamified services as well as providing insight into how to design and implement such services to bring about transformative behavior change.