Inducing individuals to engage in a gamified platform for environmental conservation

Abstract

PurposeThis research draws on goal framing theory and gamification affordance to understand how gamification design encourages users' continuous usage of information systems (IS) to perform proenvironmental behaviors.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data (N = 307) were collected from users of a gamified IS designed for environmental protection. The research model was examined with structural equation modeling.FindingsSatisfying users' demand on green effectiveness, enjoyment, and social gain directly/indirectly predicts users' intention to continue to utilize the gamified IS for proenvironmental behaviors. Moreover, gamification affordance of autonomy support, visibility of achievement, competition, and interactivity influences the satisfaction of the users' relevant demands.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the IS research for environmental sustainability at the individual level. Specifically, this research extends the understanding of users' decision-making on continuance and the role of gamification design in the context of gamified IS developed for environmental conservation.

The Impact of Gamification Motivation on Green Consumption Behavior—An Empirical Study Based on Ant Forest

“…Gamification as a form of entertainment makes the user community look for fun in the shopping process, which leads to more purchases [25]. When users' enjoyment needs are satisfied, the intention to engage in pro-environmental behaviors arises [26]. Users who engage in gamification can enjoy leisure and freedom at the mercy of their respective interests.…”

“…Enjoyment as the most central feature that games offer to users emphasizes the personal feeling of pleasurable experience that keeps users immersed [32]. Satisfying the user's need for hedonism can contribute to keeping the user using gamified information systems [26]. Furthermore, in addition to personal enjoyment feelings, gamification promotes interpersonal and human-computer interaction through game instructions and game elements that generate user stickiness and active and continuous engagement [33].…”

Toward a meaningful experience: an explanation of the drivers of the continued usage of gamified mobile app services

“…A successful gamified design can help an individual not only experience inner happiness, complete a challenge, engage in teamwork, and connect with society but also bring positive value to society through the task itself (Hsu and Chen, 2018). For example, Ant Forest has made a substantial contribution to environmental conservation by encouraging users to engage in green and low-carbon behavior (Du et al, 2020). Research also shows that users obtain entertainment and practical value from reviews and interactions in merchantinitiated activities and that a considerable number of reviews actually results in an objective evaluation of product quality and service experience (Liu et al, 2019).…”

“…The users of Ant Forest, a personal carbon accounting platform developed and launched by Alibaba Group, were selected as the research samples. In the Ant Forest app, users can accumulate online virtual "energy" through low-carbon behaviors and thereby water virtual trees (Du et al, 2020). After the virtual tree grows, Alibaba and its public welfare partners plant a real tree somewhere in China.…”

Impact of workplace frustration on online gamer loyalty

“…Hence, we choose to focus on attitudinal loyalty, which defines loyalty using continuance intention. This construct has remained the core concept in research on gamified systems (Du et al , 2020), exergaming systems (Pham et al , 2020) and social information systems (Shao et al , 2020), justifying its applicability in online game research.…”