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The impact of gamification on consumer loyalty, electronic word-of mouth

sharing and purchase behavior

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DOI: 10.1002/pa.2263

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DOI: 10.1002/pa.2263

ACADEMIC PAPER

The impact of gamification on consumer loyalty, electronic

word-of mouth sharing and purchase behavior

Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud

Department of Marketing, Al-Ahliyya Amman

University, Amman, Jordan
Correspondence
Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud, Department of
Marketing, Al-Ahliyya Amman University,
Amman, Jordan.
Email: m.alzyoud@ammanu.edu.jo
Firms often strive to acquire and increase the number of patronizes. Gamification - a
modern marketing and promotional tool is known activate positive emotions. Never-
theless, existing research has rarely examined how gamification shapes consumer loy-
alty and other tangible outcomes. The present research aims are twofold. First, this
study examine how gamification affects consumer loyalty. Second, this study investi-
gates how consumer loyalty resulting from gamified interactions manifest purchase
and eWOM sharing behavior. Data were obtained using a simple random sampling
technique from consumers who had multiple online transactions with a gamified
eCommerce website in the last 3 months. The obtained data was analyzed using a
variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM) technique. Results from VB-
SEM confirmed that gamification is a predictor for enhanced consumer loyalty. Con-
sumer loyalty did not only foster purchase intention and eWOM sharing behavior,
but also mediate the link between gamification and purchase intention, and between
gamification and eWOM sharing behavior. This article contributes to gamification
marketing literature by empirically examining its effects on important marketing vari-
ables. Implications for theory and practice are discussed alongside limitations and
future research course.

1 | I N T RO DU CT I O N The fame of social media gradually increases with strong influence

The advent of technological innovation has altered and changed the
way business owners' market and attracts customers. Todays' con-
sumer through their gadgets are more equipped and better positioned
to actively contribute to the co-creation processes in business opera-
tions as well as actively displaying extra-role behaviors that directly
impacts the business (Kennedy & Guzmán, 2016). Business can also
gain competitive edge through brand loyalty and committed of con-
sumers toward their specific brand. To build such business-consumer
relationship that will result in a win-win scenario as consumers are
satisfied and business is gaining competitive advantage is thus hinged
on the understanding of the specific marketing content that appeals
or suit the consumer behavior which will enhance their behavior
toward the business (Sen, Johnson, Bhattacharya, & Wang, 2015).
Park and Bae (2014) revealed that more than 70% of Forbes Global
2000 companies mention that they intended to use gamification for
the purpose of customer retention and marketing.
on almost every facet of human endeavor, marketing scholars are quick
to investigate its role in business marketing as it relates to advancing
academic integrity and promoting profitable business ventures. For
instance, social media marketing may serve as analytic tool through
which organizations monitors their consumers perception and act to
either maintain the status quo or make necessary alterations that may
concern the consumers dearly (Al-Zyoud, 2018a; Schweidel &
Moe, 2014). Gamification aim at creating a game-full experience
(Sigala, 2015a), motivate and direct the users' behavior and to increase
the users' engagement with the “play” tasks (Lee & Hammer, 2011) by
using game-like techniques (e.g., scoreboards, points and personalized
fast feedback) that make people feel more ownership, flow and pur-
pose when engaging with the “play” tasks (Pavlus, 2010). In consumer-
oriented websites and mobile applications, firms use gamification to
encourage people to use the eCommerce applications to drive and
enhance customer loyalty, brand awareness and effective marketing
engagement (Deterding, 2012; Sigala, 2015b).

J Public Affairs. 2020;e2263. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1 of 9
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2263
2 of 9
In essence, marketing practices can be gamified to influence con-
sumer behavior. Despite the great potential of gamification in market-
ing (Cramer, Ahmet, Rost, & Holmquist, 2011), studies examining the
gamification's effectiveness in marketing are also scant (Xu, Tian,
Buhalis, Weber, & Zhang, 2016), especially in the Arabian context. In
fact, there is a dearth of evidence on the effectiveness of gamification
in persuading consumers to succumb to marketing and promotional
messages (Xi & Hamari, 2020). Absence of evidence on how con-
sumers will react limits the ability of marketing managers in the Arab
world to effectively implement gamified services nor leverage its ben-
efit. Amalgam Insights (2018) reported that after considerable invest-
ments in gamification, several gamified business projects have failed.
More to do this, only a handful of scholarly work have examined the
fruitful outcomes of gamification in the western world such as
increased brand connections (Berger, Schlager, Sprott, & primarily to improve consumer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and
Herrmann, 2018), brand engagement (Xi & Hamari, 2020), digital sales
(Eisingerich, Marchand, Fritze, & Dong, 2019) hedonic value and utili-
tarian value (Hsu & Chen, 2018) and product adoption (Müller-
Stewens, Schlager, Häubl, & Herrmann, 2017).
Therefore, it has become imperative to examine how gamification
platforms and apps may foster consumer loyalty, which in turn may
trigger purchase intentions and the intentions to share positive elec-
tronic word-of mouth (eWOM) - a cost-effective advertising strategy
in the Arabian context. The present study strives to fill the void in the
literature and its aim are in three-fold. To examine the impact of
(i) gamification on consumer loyalty; (ii) consumer loyalty on eWOM
sharing behavior and purchase intentions; and (iii) the mechanism by
which consumer loyalty mediate the link between gamification and
two important marketing outcomes (i.e., eWOM sharing behavior and
purchase intentions). In sum, this paper will shed new light on how
companies can use gamified experience to boost customer loyalty and
also facilitates consumer interactions drive sales and positive eWOM.
2 | THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND
HYPOTHESES
Gamification illustrates the different systems, processes and design
principles that are used to motivate, engage and influence communi-
ties, groups and individuals to drive intentions (behaviors) or produce
desired outcome (Glover, 2013; Nicholson, 2015). In marketing activi-
ties, there has been an increase in the popularity and rise of games
which has become appealing to marketers because of gamification's
new trend. Gamification is gradually being in the marketing execu-
tive's mind. Xu (2011) posited that gamification also gives the oppor-
tunity for customers to accept branding messages in an enjoyable
manner. It also gives room for repeating branding messages. Hence-
forth, the intense interaction in gamification can improve individual's
sense of identification, loyalty and belongingness to a business, prod-
uct, service or brand.
To be loyal is more than just having a desire to sustain a relation-
ship; loyalty involves demonstrating behaviors intended to maintain
the relationship (such as reinforcement, defense of the relationship
AL-ZYOUD
and favorable treatment of object of loyalty). According to Oli-
ver (1999, p. 34), consumer loyalty denotes “a deeply held commit-
ment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service
consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or
same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and market-
ing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior”. Aksoy
et al. (2015) suggested that consumer loyalty is driven by the interac-
tions and relationships which consumers create and develop with a
business, product, service or brand. In particular, firms that communi-
cate via social media are more likely to have positive brand image and
higher perceived service quality which can boost consumer loyalty
(Al-Zyoud, 2018b; Kaya, Behravesh, Abubakar, Kaya, & Orús 2019;
Mainardes & Cardoso, 2019).
Recent empirical evidence denotes that firms adopt gamification
engagement (Leclercq, Poncin, & Hammedi, 2017). Playful-
consumption experiences were found to be strong determinants for
consumers cognitive, affective and behavioral engagement (Abbasi,
Ting, Hlavacs, Costa, & Veloso, 2019). Informational, entertaining,
remunerative and relational content was revealed to activate engage-
ment behavior of social media users (Dolan, Conduit, Frethey-Ben-
tham, Fahy, & Goodman, 2019). Trust and usable of system and its
application appears to increase consumer loyalty (Casaló, Flavián, &
Guinalíu, 2008) and entertaining, fun and gamified applications
appears to enhance positive emotions which in turn increases motiva-
tion, interaction and engagement (Alsawaier, 2018; Casaló, Flavián, &
Ibáñez-Sánchez, 2018). In this sense, highly gamified interactions can
facilitate self–brand connections, because such games are prone to
boost emotional and cognitive attachment (Berger et al., 2018). This
paper theorizes that gamification will function as a mechanism for
increased loyalty, past work found that Gamified loyalty programs
increased consumer loyalty which in turn enhanced consumers' partic-
ipation intention and app download intention more than the conven-
tional loyalty programs (Hwang & Choi, 2019).
Thus, we propose the following hypothesis:
H1. Gamification will have a positive effect on consumer loyalty.
Purchase intention and eWOM sharing behavior are complex and
rich actions that requires both ability and motivation. According to
Macintosh and Lockshin (1997), consumer loyalty is a key marketing
indicator that can be assessed based on and attitudes and behaviors.
In essence, attitudinal loyalty encompasses some sorts of psychologi-
cal disposition toward a firm, its product or services where consumers
exhibit desires to recommend and encourage others to use a firm's
products and services (Evanschitzky, Iyer, Plassmann, Niessing, &
Meffert, 2006; Kaya et al., 2019; Oliver, 1999). Behavioral loyalty
deals with behavioral elements exhibited by consumers such as num-
ber of visits, purchase reoccurrence, purchase intentions etc.
(Evanschitzky et al., 2006; Oliver, 1999). According to Srivastava and
Kaul (2016), consumer loyalty signifies a repeated purchase of a ser-
vice/product/specific brand over a period of time. Ngobo (2017)
argued that consumer loyalty is a three-phase framework namely: no
loyalty, latent loyalty, and true loyalty. Consumer's advocacy, positive
word-of-mouth promotion (Bennett, Graham, & Clemente, 2017),
AL-ZYOUD
consumers' willingness to recommend and encourage patronage are
all forms of loyalty exhibitions (Panda & Kapoor, 2016). Loyal con-
sumers have high revisit and repurchase frequency despite having or
knowing alternatives brands, products and services and/or having
switching opportunities. Loyal consumers are less likely to engage in
search and/or evaluations of a firm's product and services due to past
transactions and the established trust. Thus, we propose the following
hypotheses:
H2. Consumer loyalty will have a positive effect on purchase
intentions.
H3. Consumer loyalty will have a positive effect on e-WOM Sharing
behavior.
The use of gamification marketing strategy reinforces and moti-
vates consumers to participate and engage in the business as well as
build necessities in them that often results in purchase intentions
(Wen, Chang, Lin, Liang, & Yang, 2014). High-quality business-
consumer relationship can result in greater level of referral in the vir-
tual platform (Abubakar, Ilkan, & Sahin, 2016). In this view, loyalty can
be of substantial value to both customers and companies. For con-
sumers, loyalty reduces the amount of time, energy and efforts spent
on searching and evaluating alternative products and services,
whereas, for firms' loyal consumers is key success factor that gener-
ates substantial revenue (Chang & Chen, 2009). Research demon-
strated that flow and interaction can increase the loyalty of game
users (Khang, Kim, & Kim, 2013). Consumer loyalty has been used as a
predictor variable for referring behavior and intention to visit among
tourists (Al-Htibat & Garanti, 2019). Others addressed consumer loy-
alty as a response variables and behavior (Gu, Oh, & Wang, 2016; Su,
Chiang, Lee, & Chang, 2016), and as a mediating variable that links
important functions to purchase behavior and eWOM communication
(Hsiao & Chen, 2016; Oliver, 1999). Thus, we propose the following
hypotheses:
H4. Consumer loyalty will mediate the relationship between
gamification and eWOM sharing behavior.
H5. Consumer loyalty will mediate the relationship between
gamification and purchase intention.
3 | METHODS A ND MATERI ALS
3.1 | Sampling and data collection
The survey items were obtained in English and back translated to Ara-
bic by professional translators. To ascertain the validity and accuracy
of the survey items, a pre-test was carried with 15 individuals. Pre-
test has been shown to overcome problems associated with item
ambiguity and ability to respond. The main research subjects were
selected randomly in the capital city Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,
Amman. Simple random sampling was chosen because of its ability to
reduce sampling bias, mitigate classification error and increase repre-
sentativeness (Jahmani, Fadiya, Abubakar, & Elrehail, 2018). In addi-
tion, anonymity and confidentiality of the participants were assured
to diminish social desirability and common method bias (Podsakoff,
3 of 9
MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003). In addition, Harman single factor
test show that the explained variance for all the scale items is 44.4%
which is less than the cutoff point of 50% (Podsakoff et al., 2003). A
filter question was used to allow the researcher to select the suitable
subjects., the participants were asked about prior online transactions
(i.e., eCommerce website) within the last 3 months. The point is that
the focal eCommerce website provides gamified experiences. Those
with “Yes” responses, were asked to voluntary participate in the study
and participants with “No” responses were excluded from the study.
This approach has been utilized in prior work (Jeon, Son, Chung, &
Drumwright, 2019). A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed,
232 were completed and only 221 valid responses were used for data
analysis.
3.2 | Measurement instruments
Gamification was operationalized with 24 scale items adopted from
(Eppmann, Bekk, & Klein, 2018; Kuo & Chuang, 2016; Quan-Haase &
Young, 2010). Sample item include “I use this website and its applica-
tions because it is entertaining”.
Consumer loyalty was operationalized with three-scale items
adopted from (Noble, Griffith, & Adjei, 2006). The present investiga-
tion focuses on consumers' perceptions of their loyalty to the
website they buy items from. Sample item include “As a customer, I
am strongly loyal to the website where I do business.”
eWOM sharing behavior was operationalized with three-scale
items adopted from (Maxham III & Netemeyer, 2003). Sample item
include “I would recommend my family members, friends, or other
acquaintances to read the message about a product and service.”
Purchase intention was operationalized with three-scale items
adopted from (Hu, Huang, Zhong, Davison, & Zhao, 2016; Pavlou &
Fygenson, 2006). Sample item include “If there are shopping needs, I
plan to purchase from this website.” The responses for variables under
investigation were collected on a five-point Likert scale ranging from
1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree).
4 | DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
4.1 | Demographic information
The sample in this study has the following demographic features.
Females make up 51.6% of the sample and the rest are male. About
2.7% of the participants are less than 20 years old; 59.7% are
between 21 and 30 years old; 24.9% are between 31 and 40 years
old; 6.3% are between 41 and 50 years old and the rest are above
50 years old. About 34.4% of the participants in the current sample
earn less than 490 Dinar a month; 23.1% earn between 500 and
999 Dinar a month' 18.1% earn between 1,000 and 1,449 Dinar a
month; 14.5% earn between 1,500 and 1,999 a month and the rest
have over 2,000 Dinar as monthly income. As for education, 4.5%
4 of 9
have high school certificates; 59.7% have some college degrees;
19.0% have bachelor's degree and the rest have higher degree.
4.2 | Measurement instruments reliability and
validity test
Variance-based structural equation modeling (VB-SEM) was applied
on the obtained data using ADANCO software. The measurement
model variables reliability, construct validity and discriminant validity
coefficients for example, standardized factor loadings, t-statistics,
Cronbach's alpha (α), Dijkstra-Henseler's rho (ρA), Jöreskog's rho (ρc),
average variance extracted (AVE), heterotrait–monotrait ratio of cor-
relations (HTMT) and Fornell Criteria were assessed. The standardized
factor loadings were all above .500 and statistically significant ±1.960.
See Figure 1 for the item loadings. The alpha, ρA and ρc values of the
variables were above the cut-off point of 0.700; and AVE values were
all above the cut-off point of 0.500 (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988; Hair Jr.,
Black, Babin, & Anderson, 2010), except for gamification that stood at
(0.497). See Table 1.
Despite this shortcoming we still assumed convergent validity, as
expert guidelines posited that if ρA and ρc are above 0.700 and AVE
is below 0.500, convergent validity can still be assumed (Fornell &
Larcker, 1981). Moreover, 0.497 is not too far from the 0.500 thresh-
old. The extant findings suggest that internal consistency and reliabil-
ity as well as convergent validity has been established. Two
FIGURE 1 Structural model
AL-ZYOUD
approaches were employed to establish discriminant validity namely:
traditional Fornell and Larcker and contemporary heterotrait–
monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT) approach. In Table 2, the
squared inter-construct correlations were all below the AVE values
for the variables (Fornell & Larcker, 1981) and in Table 3, the HTMT
ratios were also lower than the .900 threshold (Henseler, Ringle, &
Sarstedt, 2015). The extant findings suggest that discriminant validity
has been established.
4.3 | Hypotheses testing
PLS algorithm using a bootstrapping approach with a resample of
(n = 4,999) was applied to assess the proposed structural model. Boo-
tstrapping modus operandi has been shown to exert superiority over
traditional approaches such as SOBEL in testing for indirect effects
primarily because of its simulative ability to resample data and gener-
ate a confidence interval (Behravesh, Tanova, & Abubakar, 2019;
Sarstedt, Ringle, & Hair, 2017). Table 4 and Figure 1 demonstrate that
gamification exerted a positive and significant impact on consumer
loyalty (β = .667, p < .001). Consumer loyalty exerted a positive and
significant impact on purchase intention and eWOM sharing behavior
respectively (β = .612, p < .001), and (β = .697, p < .001). Subse-
quently, consumer loyalty mediated the link between gamification and
purchase intention (β = .408, p < .001) with the following percentile
bootstrap quantiles (0.5% = 0.274, 2.5% = 0.312, 97.5% = 0.516 and
AL-ZYOUD 5 of 9

99.5% = 0.545). Two, consumer loyalty mediated the link between and Chen (2010), which appears to be complementary mediation
gamification and eWOM sharing behavior (β = .470, p < .001) with the effect.
following percentile bootstrap quantiles (0.5% = 0.335, 2.5% = 0.369, The coefficient of determination also known as R-squared is used
97.5% = 0.568 and 99.5% = 0.595). To interpret the mediation out- to scrutinize how changes in the dependent variable can be predicted
comes, the present study followed the guidelines of Zhao, Lynch Jr, and explained by changes in the independent variable. Simply, R-
squared (or R2) assesses how strong the linear relationship is between
two variables and gives the percentage variation in dependent vari-
TABLE 1 Construct reliability and convergent validity able explained by an independent variable. Further, Cohen's f2 also
Constructs α ρA ρc AVE known as effect size is a measure that shows size of the effects of an
1. Gamification 0.927 0.927 0.936 0.497 independent variable on dependent. Table 5 demonstrate that

2. Consumer loyalty 0.768 0.768 0.866 0.683 gamification explains 44.5% of the variance in consumer loyalty and
the effect size is large (0.800). Consumer loyalty explains 37.5% of the
3. Purchase intention 0.854 0.858 0.901 0.696
variance in purchase intention and the effect size is large (0.599). Con-
4. eWOM sharing behavior 0.814 0.820 0.889 0.729
sumer loyalty explains 48.6% of the variance in eWOM sharing behav-
Abbreviations: α, Cronbach's alpha; ρA, Dijkstra–Henseler's rho; ρc, ior and the effect size is large (0.946). Thus, hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4 and
Jöreskog's rho; AVE, average variance extracted.
5 received empirical support.

TABLE 2 Discriminant validity using Fornell–Larcker criterion

4.4 | Discussion
Measures 1 2 3 4
1. Gamification .497 This paper presents a comprehensive examination of gamification and
2. Consumer loyalty .445 .683 its behavioral consequences. Although past research has confirmed
3. Purchase intention .366 .375 .696 that gamification relate to desirable consumers outcome such as
4. eWOM sharing behavior .384 .486 .514 .729 increased consumption, loyalty, positive emotions and experience
(Hofacker, De Ruyter, Lurie, Manchanda, & Donaldson, 2016;
Note: Values below the diagonal are squared inter-construct correlations
Hwang & Choi, 2019). The present paper suggests more and explains
for the Fornell–Larcker criterion. Values in bold are constructs specific
average variance extracted. the step by which consumption, for example, purchase intention and
Abbreviation: eWOM, electronic word-of mouth. information sharing behavior happens. Additionally, the paper

TABLE 3 Discriminant validity using heterotrait-monotrait ratios TABLE 5 Effect sizes

Measures 1 2 3 4 Measures R2 f2
1. Gamification — 1. Gamification — —
2. Consumer loyalty 0.785 — 2. Consumer loyalty .445 0.800
3. Purchase intention 0.709 0.880 — 3. Purchase intention .375 0.599
4. eWOM sharing behavior 0.681 0.754 0.863 — 4. eWOM sharing behavior .486 0.946
2 2
Note: Values below the diagonal are heterotrait-monotrait ratios. Note: R , coefficient of determination; f , Cohen's effect size.
Abbreviation: eWOM, electronic word-of mouth. Abbreviation: eWOM, electronic word-of mouth.

TABLE 4 Direct and indirect effects

Beta t value p value Decision

Direct effects
H1. Gamification!consumer loyalty .667 15.177 .001 Supported
H2. Consumer loyalty!purchase intention .612 12.399 .001 Supported
H3. Consumer loyalty!eWOM sharing behavior .697 16.339 .001 Supported
Indirect effects
H4. Gamification!consumer loyalty!purchase intention .408 7.762 .001 Supported
H5. Gamification!consumer loyalty!eWOM sharing .470 9.112 .001 Supported
behavior

Abbreviation: eWOM, electronic word-of mouth.

6 of 9
contends that purchase intention and information sharing behavior
emerges because of gamification through consumer loyalty. Five
important findings that worth mentioning emerged from the data
analysis as follows:
One, result showed that gamification exerted a positive effect on
consumer loyalty. This finding corroborates with the extant literature
on consumer behavior, that consumer's perceptions and attitudes
toward online purchases and involvement are improving through
friendly interactions (Kanchanatanee, Suwanno, & Jarernvongrayab,
2014). Games are known to have emotional and motivational involve-
ment that may result in intense attachment to the former games and
the latter the environment, for example, eCommerce sites. Past study
denoted that gaming features in online marketing will increase
consumer's intention to engage and interact (Yang, Asaad, &
Dwivedi, 2017). Subsequently, Xu, Buhalis, and Weber (2017) argued
that gamification can help consumers recall and have desire to inter-
act with the service provider or product. In essence, gamification
emerged as a predictor for consumer loyalty and this result
supported several other assertions in the literature (e.g., Cheung &
To, 2017; Haq & Ghouri, 2017). This finding implies that application
of gaming features in eCommerce website does not only ensure con-
sumers engagement and interaction but also keep them with the
business.
Two, result showed that consumer loyalty exerted a positive
effect on purchase intention. This implies that consumers are most
likely to make purchases when they exhibit positive attitudes toward
a firm, products or services. Yusuf, Che Hussin, and Busalim (2018)
provides explanation on how this mechanics work, by arguing that
attitude holds control in influencing consumer's behavioral intention.
In essence, consumer trust that arise due to loyalty is likely to influ-
ence the consumers' evaluation concerning a firm's product and ser-
vice quality, which then installs purchase intention. Therefore,
positive attitudes toward a firm, its products or services could be
translated into a desire to deal with the firm and subsequently pur-
chase behavior and intentions.
Three, result showed that consumer loyalty exerted a positive
effect on eWOM sharing behavior. This implies that consumers are
more likely to share positive experience when they have strong sense
of interaction and loyalty with a firm. Prior findings made similar
claims, Kabadayi and Price (2014) claimed that intense consumer
interaction with a firm, its products and services is an antecedent for
higher levels of liking, commenting and sharing behavior on Facebook.
In other words, positive attitudes toward a firm can serve as a cause
for information sharing with friends, colleagues and social circles (Al-
Htibat & Garanti, 2019). Thus, this paper acknowledges presence of a
causal association between consumer loyalty and eWOM sharing
behavior, in that intense loyalty can result to liking, sharing and pro-
moting an eCommerce website contents.
Four, result showed that consumer loyalty mediated the relation-
ship between gamification between and purchase intention. This is in
line with past research which asserts that purchase behavior is an
affirmation of consent that a firm is worth dealing with
(Anderson, 2014). Mainardes and Cardoso (2019) also found that
AL-ZYOUD
consumer loyalty is an antecedent for consumer purchase intention.
This finding implies that consumers tend to make purchase decisions
based on the cognitive and emotional affect held toward a firm, its
products and services. Thus, with the perception of positive image,
loyal consumers can infer that a business is worthy of their
transactions.
Five, consumer loyalty mediated the relationship between
gamification between and eWOM sharing behavior. The result of this
study mirrors Yeh and Choi's (2011) findings which concluded that
highly motivated consumers will engage in eWOM sharing. Simply,
gamification functions as a motivational tool for consumer to engage
and interact with a firm, its products and services. Repetitive usage,
visits and revisits enhances the bond between consumers and firms,
which results to greater loyalty. Furthermore, researchers confirmed
that loyalty results in positive behavioral actions toward the organiza-
tion (Govind, Singh, Garg, & D'Silva, 2017; Markovic, Iglesias, Singh, &
Sierra, 2015). This is because loyalty motivates consumers to feel
responsible for the firm thereby taking actions that promotes the
interest of the firm and its products or services. Thus, the article con-
tends that such actions subsume eWOM sharing behavior. The find-
ings acknowledge that consumer loyalty mediated the relationship
between gamification and eWOM sharing behavior.
4.5 | Implications for theory and practice
Although firm's spending in gamification is increasing (i.e., more than
50% of the firms will gamify some aspects of their business by 2020
(Gartner, 2012). Prior work of Tata, Prashar, and Parsad (2019) and
Kaya et al. (2019) delineated that shoppers perceived usefulness of
eCommerce sites and products are predictors of satisfaction, and
intention to write positive reviews. To build this line of argument, this
paper highlighted that managers can gamified their business platforms
to boost consumer loyalty. For example, Belanche, Flavián, and Pérez-
Rueda (2020) argued that interactive features of social media allow
consumers interested in spreading adverts message directly and
immediately. In similar vein, gamified apps can be designed to allow
users to share and forward firm's product/service or brand related
marketing messages.
Consumer loyalty is profitable for both consumers and firms.
Reduces uncertainty and search efforts for former and increases sales
volume, functions as a cost-effective advertisements and promotions
medium. Practically, game-mediated objects can evoke cognitive
engagement through involvement, presence, arousal, memories and
accomplishment (Abbasi et al., 2019). These kinds of pleasure often
evoke repetitive actions (i.e., purchase behavior) and/or story telling
behavior (i.e., eWOM sharing behavior). Therefore, managers need to
scrutinize their gamification and consumer loyalty programs to adapt
and adopt the successful approaches to lock-in consumers for culti-
vating consumers' deliberate inertia and lock-in effects. This study
highlighted that actual purchase, purchase intentions and even rep-
urchase are assumed to be natural behavioral actions of highly loyal
and engaged consumers as a result of gamified platform.
AL-ZYOUD
4.6 | Limitations and future research course
Taking account of research's limitations helps to put its results into
context. The first limitation is that data were self-reported by the par-
ticipants, which leads to a possible inflation in the correlations
between the variables. The second limitation is the cross-sectional
design which precludes us from drawing conclusions as to the causal
interference of the variables under investigation. Future scholars are
advised to utilize alternative designs (i.e., longitudinal) and methods
such as machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques
(Abubakar, 2018), Bayesian networks (Wipulanusat, Panuwatwanich,
Stewart, Arnold, & Wang, 2020), fuzzy sets techniques (Huarng &
Roig-Tierno, 2016) and mixed methodologies (Kaya et al., 2019;
Wipulanusat et al., 2020). The third limitation is that participants were
Arabs characterized by oriental culture, thus, expanding the purview
of fit research to non-Arab contexts is important, as people in differ-
ent cultures may hold different views on the theme of interest. Alter-
natively, conducting a comparative study seems to be fruitful arena
that can further our insights.
ORCID
Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2464-
8162
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tion in a mobile marketing campaign app. In International conference on AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
HCI in business (pp. 440–448).
Wipulanusat, W., Panuwatwanich, K., Stewart, R. A., Arnold, S. L., &
Wang, J. (2020). Bayesian network revealing pathways to workplace Mohammad Fahmi Al-Zyoud an Associate Professor in Business
innovation and career satisfaction in the public service. Journal of Man- School at Al-Ahlyyia Amman University in Jordan. He received his
agement Analytics, 7(2), 253–280. PhD from the Department of Marketing at Girne American Uni-
Xi, N., & Hamari, J. (2020). Does gamification affect brand engagement
versity, Northern Cyprus. His research interests includes market-
and equity? A study in online brand communities. Journal of Business
Research, 109, 449–460. ing strategy, branding, and social media marketing.
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(pp. 5–11). Honolulu, HI.
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of tourism. Tourism Management, 60, 244–256.
Xu, F., Tian, F., Buhalis, D., Weber, J., & Zhang, H. (2016). Tourists as How to cite this article: Al-Zyoud MF. The impact of
mobile gamers: Gamification for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & gamification on consumer loyalty, electronic word-of mouth
Tourism Marketing, 33(8), 1124–1142. sharing and purchase behavior. J Public Affairs. 2020;e2263.
Yang, Y., Asaad, Y., & Dwivedi, Y. (2017). Examining the impact of
https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2263
gamification on intention of engagement and brand attitude in the
marketing context. Computers in Human Behavior, 73, 459–469.

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