Gamification in Influencer Marketing: A Motivation-based Framework for Understanding Consumer Behaviour

This article determines the effect of gamification in influencer marketing on consumer motivation, engagement, and purchase intention (PI) with the use of a quantitative, descriptive, and explanatory research design. A structured questionnaire in the form of an interview using the pre-validated scales was used to collect data on 400 active social media users aged between 18 and 40 years in the Tricity region comprising Chandigarh, Mohali, and Panchkula. To confirm the validity and reliability of constructs related to gamification perception (GP), intrinsic motivation (IM), extrinsic motivation (EM), customer engagement (CE), and PI, the dimensionality and reliability of their constructs were validated based on the employment of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Factor analysis was deemed adequate by the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value of 0.920 and a significant Bartlett test. The formulation of hypothesized relationships was tested by structural equation modelling, and all relationships proved to be significant. Results showed that GP has a significant effect on IM and EM, which affect CE, resulting in higher PI in the end. Further mediation analysis also indicated that IM and EM back-to-back mediate the effect of the GP on PI by the CE. These findings highlight the psychological processes by which gamified influencer content induces consumer behaviour and will be of strategic value to marketers interested in increasing engagement as well as conversion within online settings.