مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد ایجاد مشارکت نام تجاری – الزویر 2019

The purpose of this study is to understand how gamification contributes to customers’ value creation in a retail context and how this value creation relates to brand engagement. The study builds on a field experiment using a two-group between-subjects design combined with correlational research. The experiment involved 378 participants recruited at a major European sports retailer. Participants were exposed to one of two conditions: one with a gamified activity in a store, and one in which the participants performed the same activity without being exposed to any game elements. The findings show that gamification affects the hedonic value of an activity and that this effect can be partly explained by positive affect. When this hedonic value was compared to the satisfaction with a reward, the hedonic value was found to be a better predictor of continued engagement intention. Finally, gamification through continued engagement intention is positively associated with brand engagement.

Introduction

Retailing is transforming rapidly due to digitalization (Hagberg et al., 2016), and news articles have reported that the threat of online shopping is creating a crisis among brick-and-mortar stores (e.g., Walker, 2014). Despite these negative reports, surveys highlight the continuing importance of such stores. According to one such survey (SessionM, 2015), more than 70 percent of consumers had made a nongrocery purchase in a physical store during the preceding three months, and 68 percent had bought all their clothes and footwear in such stores. Many customers enjoy shopping in physical stores since, in addition to utilitarian shopping experiences, they also pursue hedonic experiences (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982), such as seeking the thrill of bargain hunting along with enjoying browsing and window-shopping (Arnold and Reynolds, 2003; Verhoef et al., 2009). Since customers seek value that emerges from such hedonic experiences, retailers can focus on providing such experiences – in addition to utilitarian experiences – in their physical stores when digitalizing to improve the overall customer experience. One of the more prominent facilitators of digitalization is the widespread use of smartphones (Hagberg et al., 2016). Such devices have become constant accessories for their users, which makes them suitable as supplementary channels for physical retailers (Shankar et al., 2010). This current state of smartphone use has created an opportunity for such retailers to compete by using these digital tools to take the in-store experience to higher levels (Walker, 2014).