Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Information & Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/im

Alone or together? Exploring the role of desire for online group gaming in T
players’ social game addiction
Xiang Gonga, Kem Z.K. Zhangb, , Christy M.K. Cheungc, Chongyang Chend, Matthew K.O. Leee
⁎

a
University of Science and Technology of China-City University of Hong Kong Joint Program, 96 Jinzhai, Hefei, Anhui, China
b
International School of Business & Finance, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
c
Department of Finance and Decision Sciences, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong
d
Dongwu Business School, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
e
Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong, 6117, Cheng Yick Chi Building, Hong Kong

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Drawing on dual-system theory, this study examines the role of desire for online group gaming in online social
Online social game addiction game addiction. By conducting a longitudinal online survey, we show that attitude, anticipated enjoyment,
Desire for online group gaming group norm, and social identity contribute to the development of desire for online group gaming. Such desire
Habit facilitates habit and self-regulation deficiency, which, in turn, fosters online social game addiction. This study
Self-regulation
contributes to the literature by theorizing a nomological network of desire for online group gaming on online
Dual-system theory
social game addiction and by offering implications for managing addictive gaming.
Technology addiction

1. Introduction information systems (IS) research community [9–16,18,19]. Although

Online social games, which are facilitated by social networking sites
such as WeChat, Twitter, and Facebook, have rapidly become prevalent
digital pastimes for online players [1]. Online social games enable on-
line social interaction among players through competitive, cooperative,
and competitive-cooperative activities in social game communities [2].
For example, players can develop interpersonal relationships, exchange
virtual gifts or coins, and play as a member of guild with their com-
munity friends [3,4]. Given their socialization features, online social
games have gained burgeoning popularity. A serious social consequence
of such popularity is online social game addiction [5]. Many reports have
highlighted the increasing concerns over young players’ obsessive and
addictive gaming. For example, Candy Crush, a Facebook-based and
social puzzle game, has 93 million active users who play the game at an
average of over 10 times per day [1]. Another famous online social
game, Honor of Kings, has more than 200 million registered players,
with every player spending an average of nearly 6 h per week playing
the game [6]. Players’ addictive online gaming is often associated with
various detrimental consequences, such as depression, stress, sleep
disturbance, and even death [7,8]. As an increasingly prevalent societal
challenge, online social game addiction warrants further research in
terms of its antecedents and underlying mechanisms.
Technology addiction has received increasing attention in the
previous research has identified a variety of antecedents of user tech-
nology addiction, the majority of these antecedents pertain to socio-
psychological factors, such as demographics [1], addiction liability
[18], perceived enjoyment [12,16], and habit [15,16,19]. The impact
of social factors (e.g., socialization and group-referent behavior with
other users) on technology addiction has been largely overlooked in the
literature. One possible explanation is that most studies examined
technology addiction in a context in which the behavior is individual-
referent and does not usually involve other users (e.g., using smart-
phones, surfing the Internet, or watching online videos). A review of
prior online game addiction literature also suggests that the concept of
socialization is often neglected (see Appendix A). We found that only
three online game addiction studies have mentioned the role of socia-
lization in online game addiction [8,20,21]. Despite being an insightful
start, prior studies did not examine the antecedents of socialization and
their underlying mechanisms shaping online game addiction. There is a
lack of systematic and theoretical understanding of the role of sociali-
zation in the formation of online game addiction.
Motivated by these issues in the technology addiction research, the
primary research objective is to develop a systematic and con-
textualized understanding of online social game addiction. To achieve
this objective, we draw on dual-system theory [22,23] to construct a
research model that explains online social game addiction. By doing so,

Corresponding author.
⁎

E-mail addresses: xianggong3-c@my.cityu.edu.hk (X. Gong), zhangzikun@mail.sysu.edu.cn (K.Z.K. Zhang), ccheung@hkbu.edu.hk (C.M.K. Cheung),
cychen@suda.edu.cn (C. Chen), ismatlee@cityu.edu.hk (M.K.O. Lee).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2019.01.001
Received 7 December 2017; Received in revised form 27 December 2018; Accepted 2 January 2019
Available online 05 January 2019
0378-7206/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
X. Gong, et al.
Fig. 1. User, small friendship group, and virtual community (adapted from Bagozzi et al. [33]).
we advance the literature in two ways. First, we focus on socialization,
which is particularly relevant in the online social game context. By
incorporating socialization in the technology addiction models, we
provide a contextualized theoretical explanation of online social game
addiction, casting a new light on future investigations of technology
addictions to social technologies. Second, we focus on dual-system
theory to construct a nomological network explaining online social
game addiction. Specifically, we emphasize the role of socialization
(i.e., the desire for online group gaming) and examine its antecedents
and consequences. This study enhances our theoretical understanding
of the psychological mechanisms shaping online social game addiction.
We believe that understanding online social game addiction is timely
and of practical relevance. The results provide practitioners with in-
sights into intervention and prevention of online social game addiction,
which has severe impact to the new generation.
2. Theoretical background
We first review prior studies on technology addiction and specify
key issues tied to behavioral addictions in the context of online social
games. We then proceed to introduce the concept of socialization and
dual-system theory [22,23], which are the theoretical foundation of this
study.
2.1. Technology addiction
Technology addiction is a maladaptive and obsessive pattern of
technology use behaviors that conflicts with one’s normal functioning
or other important activities [9]. Consistent with Turel et al.’s [9] de-
finition of technology addiction, we operationalize online social game
addiction as a maladaptive psychological dependency on online social
games, which is typically accompanied by the following symptoms: (1)
mood regulation—playing online social games provides mood en-
hancement and relief; (2) tolerance—a user has to play online social
games to a higher degree to induce arousal; (3) relapse—a user cannot
easily limit the number of times s/he plays online social games vo-
luntarily; (4) conflict—playing online social games creates a set of in-
terpersonal, intrapersonal, and academic/professional problems; (5)
withdrawal—if a user cannot play online social games, then s/he may
experience negative emotions; and (6) salience—a user’s behaviors are
dominated by playing online social games.
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
To understand the current status of research on online game ad-
diction, we conducted a literature review on prior online game addic-
tion studies. Our literature review shows several research patterns that
motivate the current investigation (see Appendix A). We notice that
researchers have adopted diverse theoretical frameworks to explain
online game addiction. For instance, social cognitive theory [81] is the
most popular theory used in explaining online game addiction. Re-
searchers suggested that personality traits, loneliness, depression, and
deficient self-regulation are the key determinants of online game ad-
diction [5,7,8,21,46]. Flow theory [82] has also been used to explain
how players’ flow experience is positively related to excessive online
gaming [47,48]. Some studies based on motivation theories [83] con-
tended that players’ psychological needs, such as need for curiosity,
role-playing, belonging, escapism, and mechanics, foster their addictive
online gaming behaviors [17]. Further, some researchers used the op-
ponent process theory [84] and rational addiction theory [85] to ex-
amine players’ addictive online gaming behavior [1,49]. Based on our
literature review, the role of socialization in shaping players’ online
social gaming behavior has not been systematically investigated in the
technology addiction literature.
2.2. The concept of socialization
The concept of socialization has its stem from the intentional social
action literature [26,27,30], which has been widely used to explain the
development of socialization and group-referent behaviors. For ex-
amples, Tsai and Bagozzi [26] reported that users desire to write arti-
cles or share photos with a group of their community friends in online
sharing communities. Bagozzi and Dholakia [29] found that users are
usually craving for completing a joint project with their community
friends in open source software communities. Similarly, Dholakia et al.
[27] and Bagozzi and Dholakia [32] argued that users are craving for
identifying themselves with small friendship groups and shaping group
profiles in online brand communities. The psychological affiliation with
a friendship group offers users collectively constructed desires for so-
cialization and group-referent behaviors with their community friends
[31,32]. Fig. 1 depicts the relationship among user, small friendship
group, and virtual community.
Previous research hypothesizes that three bases determine a user’s
desire for socialization and group-referent behaviors in virtual com-
munities, namely informational, emotional, and social influences
X. Gong, et al.
Fig. 2. Dual-System Theory of Technology Addiction.
[26,27,30]. Informational influence is defined as a user’s cognitive
appraisal of group-referent behaviors along a positive-to-negative di-
mension [29]. It contributes to a user’s desires by offering them in-
formational justifications and supports for engaging in group-referent
behaviors. Emotional influence refers to forward-looking affective re-
actions toward engaging in group-referent behaviors [29]. Positive
anticipated emotions would drive users to imagine the pleasant aspects
of group-referent behaviors and eventually foster their behavioral de-
sires to participate in such behaviors. Social influence originates from
the normative influences of compliance, internalization, and identifi-
cation processes: (1) compliance process denotes the influence of a need
for approval from important others, such as friends, family, colleagues,
and other socially important references in the real world; (2) inter-
nalization process reflects the congruence of one’s goals or values with
a specific small friendship group in virtual communities; and (3)
identification process demonstrates one’s self-awareness, affective
commitment, and collective self-esteem of her/his membership in the
small friendship group [26]. Previous studies show that informational,
emotional, and social influences altogether formulate users’ desires for
socialization and group-referent behaviors in virtual communities
[26,27,30].
2.3. Dual-system theory
Dual-system theory [22,23] has been widely used to explain the
etiology of addictive behaviors (see Appendix B). The theory posits that
temptation desires can trigger a user’s behavior through two structu-
rally different systems, namely the reflexive and reflective systems
[22,23]. Temptation desires refer to a user’s cravings for performing a
specific behavior [27]. A user’s desire can be conceptualized in two
different ways: desire for individual-referent behaviors and desire for
group-referent behaviors (see Appendix C). The first type of desire is a
personal desire to perform an action alone without the influence of
social groups. The second type of desire is a social desire rooted in one’s
self-conception of a member of a particular social group and reflects
one’s motivation to socialize with the members of social groups. The
reflexive system is a habitual, reactive, and largely automatic process
[24]. This system drives us to automatically trigger a habitual behavior
consistent with our short-term desires without thinking about the
consequences of such behavior. Meanwhile, the reflective system is an
inhibitory, self-regulated, and controlled process [24]. When a behavior
is associated with negative consequences, the reflective system will
activate self-regulation to inhibit habitual responses in order to align
with one’s long-term goals. The individuals’ day-to-day behavior is an
outcome of a “tug of war” between the two aforementioned systems
[28]. The balance between the two systems would generate normal and
healthy behavior, while their imbalance would yield deviant and ad-
dictive behavior.
Dual-system theory [22,23] has been recently extended to under-
stand the phenomena of technology addiction in the IS research
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
community. These studies implicitly uncovered three key principles of
the theory. The first principle suggests that technology addiction is an
outcome of the reflexive–reflective system imbalance, which is often
manifested as a strong habitual tendency to trigger an obsessive tech-
nology use combined with impaired self-regulation functions to inhibit
such obsessive use [15,25,28]. The second principle contends that the
reflexive and reflective systems often interact with each other to in-
fluence technology addiction [24]. The third principle posits that the
reflexive–reflective system imbalance is gradually triggered by temp-
tation desires [23].
Following dual-system theory, this study operationalizes temptation
desire as desire for socialization and group-referent behaviors; deindi-
viduation effect as a loss of sense of individuality through submerge in a
small friendship group; reflexive system as a habitual, largely automatic,
and reactive process; reflective system as a self-regulated, inhibitory, and
controlled process; and technology addiction as online social game ad-
diction. Fig. 2 depicts dual-system theory of technology addiction.
3. Research model and hypotheses
In this section, we contextualize the relationships between core
constructs found in dual-system theory [22,23] to online social game
addiction. Specifically, we propose that habit and self-regulation defi-
ciency are positively associated with the online social game addiction.
Further, a high level of habit positively moderates the effect of self-
regulation deficiency on online social game addiction. Subsequently,
we argue that desire for online group gaming enhances players’ habit
and self-regulation deficiency for online social games. Building upon
the intentional social action literature [26,27,30], we incorporate the
informational, emotional, and social influence factors into the model to
predict desire for online group gaming. We argue that attitude (i.e.,
informational influence), anticipated enjoyment (i.e., emotional influ-
ence), subjective norm, group norm, and social identity (i.e., social
influence) positively affect players’ desire for online group gaming.
Fig. 3 depicts our research model.
3.1. Core predictors of online social game addiction
Based on dual-system theory [22,23], we propose the relationships
among habit, self-regulation deficiency, and online social game addic-
tion. The theory posits that (1) the reflexive–reflective system im-
balance determines technology addiction; and (2) the reflexive and
reflective systems often interact with each other to foster technology
addiction [15,24]. Thus, we expect that the reflexive–reflective system
imbalance and interaction foster online social game addiction.
3.1.1. The reflexive system
The reflexive system processes informational cues automatically to
activate preexisting behavior with little conscious effort [22]. The IS
literature has frequently employed habit to manifest the reflexive
X. Gong, et al.
Fig. 3. Research model.
system [15,28,39]. Habit refers to the extent to which users tend to use
a technology automatically because of learning [40]. Habit formation
requires a certain amount of behavioral repetition and specific situa-
tional cues [16]. Upon its establishment, habit is performed auto-
matically with minimal mental effort and conscious attention [19].
Thus, a habitual behavior is a reflexive system in nature because of its
minimal requirements for deliberate control and cognitive processing
[15].
In this study, the reflexive system is operationalized as habit, which
refers to a player’s tendency to play online social games with a group of
her/his community friends automatically because of learning [40]. A
strong habit means that a player views playing online social games with
her/his group of community friends as a natural choice. Such habitual
tendency may drive the player to overemphasize the short-term thrills
and underestimate the long-term risks of her/his gaming behavior [16].
These changes occur through the incentive-sensitization system, in
which a habitual player’s brain becomes highly sensitive to the salience
of behavioral thrills and pays less conscious attention to the future
consequences of a certain behavior [19]. As a result, habitual gaming
may further transform into addictive gaming. Therefore, we hypothe-
size the following:
H1. Habit is positively related to online social game addiction.
3.1.2. The reflective system
The reflective system processes informational cues with conscious
cognitive processing and deliberate control to regulate individual be-
havior [22]. In the IS literature, one of the most frequently studied
variables associated with the reflective system is self-regulation defi-
ciency, which describes one’s failure and state of inadequacy in mon-
itoring, judging, and adjusting her/his behavior [15]. For instance,
Davazdahemami et al. [42] and Soror et al. [15,25] employed self-
regulation deficiency to manifest the reflective system in the context of
mobile phone addiction. Turel and Qahri-Saremi [24] and Turel and
Osatuyi [28] operationalized the reflective system as a self-regulation
deficiency when investigating the nature of social networking addic-
tion. In a similar view, Wang et al. [39] contended that self-regulation
deficiency is a typical manifestation of the reflective system in the
context of microblog addiction. All of these studies suggest that a strong
self-regulation can help users regulate their technology addiction be-
haviors, while a deficient self-regulation means that individuals are
incapable of adjusting their addictive technology use. Consequently,
self-regulation deficiency is an appropriate manifestation of the
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
reflective system in which it is consistent with past IS literature and
highly relevant to the technology addiction context.
In accordance with prior research [15,28,39], we employ self-reg-
ulation deficiency to manifest the impaired reflective system. Self-reg-
ulation deficiency refers to a player’s failure to adequately judge,
monitor, and adjust playing online social games with a group of her/his
community friends [8]. This factor comprises the following dimensions:
(1) affective irreplaceability, which denotes players’ affective commit-
ment in online group gaming with their community friends that cannot
be replaced by any other activities; (2) cognitive preoccupation, which
means that players are consciously preoccupied with thoughts of online
group gaming with their community friends; and (3) behavioral com-
pulsion, which indicates that players are unable to control their beha-
vioral urge to engage in online group gaming with their community
friends [21,39]. Players with deficient self-regulation are vulnerable to
play online social games obsessively and addictively [5,7,8]. Therefore,
we hypothesize the following:
H2. Self-regulation deficiency is positively related to online social game
addiction.
3.1.3. The reflexive-reflective system interaction
Habit and self-regulation may interact with each other and de-
monstrate the reinforcement effect on online social game addiction. As
mentioned earlier, habit diminishes the conscious cognitive processing
with which a behavior is performed. After establishing a habit, in-
dividuals automatically activate their online group gaming behavior
with their community friends because of a prior satisfactory usage ex-
perience [40]. They become sensitive to the short-term thrills and pay
little attention to the potential negative consequences of their online
group gaming behavior [16,19]. Under this situation, players with de-
ficient self-regulation tend to foster addictive online group gaming
behavior because they neutralize deviant gaming as acceptable and
“rationally” indulge in the game. By contrast, a low level of habit means
that players would make an accurate assessment of a behavior. They
also acknowledge that addictive online group gaming induces a set of
negative problems, such as depression, sleep disturbance, and poor
academic/work performance. Therefore, these players may suffer from
cognitive dissonance if they continue engaging in addictive online
group gaming with their community friends [9]. To reduce such cog-
nitive dissonance, players would try their best to inhibit their addictive
online group gaming behavior. Therefore, we hypothesize the fol-
lowing:
X. Gong, et al.
H3. Habit strengths the effect of self-regulation deficiency on online
social game addiction.
3.2. Desire for online group gaming and the deindividuation effect
Congruent with dual-system theory [22,23], we propose the re-
lationships among desire for online group gaming, habit, and self-reg-
ulation deficiency. The theory posits that temptation desire fosters the
reflexive–reflective system imbalance [23]. In online social game
communities, we investigate one type of such temptation desire—desire
for online group gaming. In line with Tsai and Bagozzi [26], we define
desire for online group gaming as a player’s craving for playing online
social games with a group of her/his community friends. The accu-
mulated desire for online group gaming would change the nature of the
reflexive–reflective system to foster addictive behaviors through the
underlying deindividuation effect.
Deindividuation effect refers to “the loss of one’s sense of in-
dividuality through submergence in a social group” [34, p.239]. This
effect captures individual members’ psychological state of categorizing
themselves as group members, sharing in-group norms and goals, and
behaving similar to other in-group members [35]. Early sociology re-
search finds that deindividuation effect tends to foster problematic and
antinormative behaviors because of a deficient self-regulation and the
lack of concern for social comparison [36]. When individuals are
deindividuated in a social group, their individual-referent self-aware-
ness will transform into group-referent membership [34]. They tend to
regulate their behaviors based on group norms rather than their in-
ternal standards and values [37]. Therefore, any antinormative beha-
vior that the general public regards as unacceptable or problematic may
be justified as “acceptable” on the basis of in-group norms and stan-
dards. For instance, prior IS studies uncover that deindividuation
within online deviant friendship groups would magnify the influence of
group norms and eventually lead to problematic and addictive tech-
nology use [14,35,38]. In social game communities, desire for online
group gaming and the underlying deindividuation effect may distort the
reflexive–reflective system balance, thereby making players susceptible
to addictive gaming.
Previous studies on habit suggest that frequent repetitions of and
positive experiences with a behavior are key conditions for habit de-
velopment [40]. In social game communities, a strong desire for online
group gaming can increase one’s tendency to play games repetitively
with a small friendship group [27]. The more frequently a behavior is
performed, the more likely it is for conscious cognitive processing to be
transformed into automatic responses and habitual use [19]. Further-
more, the deindividuation driven by desire for online group gaming can
result ingroup favoritism, heightened enjoyment, and collective self-
esteem in participating in group activities [26]. These satisfactory ex-
periences will drive players to play games repetitively with their
community friends [16,19]. As a result, players with a high level of
desire for online group gaming tend to form a habitual gaming behavior
with their community friends. Therefore, we hypothesize the following
H4. Desire for online group gaming is positively related to habit.
Previous research on self-regulation argues that temptation desires
may impair individuals’ self-regulatory functions of judging, mon-
itoring, and adjusting their behaviors [50]. In online social game
communities, players with a strong desire for online group gaming may
deindividuate themselves in small friendship groups [8]. Players in a
deindividuated state tend to regulate their in-group behaviors on the
basis of in-group norms rather than their internal processes, values, and
standards [35,37]. Such tendency diminishes their self-regulation
ability to adjust their gaming behavior with their group of community
friends. As a consequence, players with a strong desire for online group
gaming have a higher tendency to develop self-regulation deficiency.
Therefore, we hypothesize the following:
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
H5. Desire for online group gaming is positively related to self-
regulation deficiency.
3.3. Antecedents of desire for online group gaming
The intentional social action literature [26,27,30] proposes that
informational, emotional, and social influences are the three key pre-
requisites for one’s desire to engage in group-referent behaviors. In
online social game communities, we operationalize informational in-
fluence as attitude, which refers to a player’s summary evaluation of
playing games with a group of her/his community friends along a po-
sitive-to-negative dimension [29]. Positive attitudes mean that players
view gaming with their community friends as a beneficial, favorable,
and rewarding activity. We denote emotional influence by anticipated
enjoyment, which refers to a player’s forward-looking affective reac-
tions and gratifications that are derived from playing online games with
her/his group of community friends [43]. A high level of anticipated
enjoyment will induce players to imagine the pleasurable aspects of
group gaming as fun and enjoyable. Empirical studies have identified
attitude and anticipated enjoyment as important bases for a user to
participate in group activities in virtual communities, such as open
source communities [29], online brand communities [27,30], and on-
line sharing communities [26]. Accordingly, we expect that players
with positive attitudes and anticipated enjoyment are more likely to
develop desires to participate in online group gaming. Therefore, we
hypothesize the following:
H6. Attitude is positively related to desire for online group gaming.
H7. Anticipated enjoyment is positively related to desire for online
group gaming.
Social influence is particularly influential in determining one’s de-
sires to participate in group-referent behaviors. The intentional social
action literature [26,27,30] examined three modes of social influence,
namely compliance process (i.e., subjective norm), internalization
process (i.e., group norm), and identification process (i.e., social iden-
tity). Subjective norm reflects the social compliance of expectations
from important others [29]. These important social references are
friends, family, colleagues, and other people they follow in the real
world [51,52]. At the early stage of online group gaming, players have
limited prior gaming experience with their group of community friends.
Thus, they may rely on prevailing subjective expectations significantly
from others to formulate their desires to engage in online group
gaming. Therefore, we hypothesize the following:
H8. Subjective norm is positively related to desire for online group
gaming.
After a player starts to engage in gaming with a group of her/his
community friends, the social influence from in-group members (i.e.,
internalization and identification) plays a prominent role in de-
termining behavioral desires [26]. The internalization process that
underlies group norm reflects the congruence of a player’s values or
goals with her/his small friendship group in a social game community
[27,30]. In the friendship group, group norm ensures a mutual agree-
ment regarding the consequences of engaging in group activities [32]. A
high level of group norm implicitly yields a consensus among members
with respect to how and when to participate in group gaming. In this
respect, when a player’s goals and values are congruent with those of
other group members, s/he tends to have higher desires to participate
in online group gaming. Therefore, we hypothesize the following:
H9. Group norm is positively related to desire for online group gaming.
The identification process is further manifested as social identity,
which indicates that a player construes herself/himself as a member of
a small friendship group in a social game community [53]. Social
identity involves the following elements: (1) cognitive social identity,
X. Gong, et al.
which reflects a player’s cognitive awareness of her/his group mem-
bership; (2) affective social identity, which captures the player’s emo-
tional feelings of commitment, attachment, and belongingness to the
focal group; and (3) evaluative social identity, which represents the
collective or group-based self-esteem derived from group membership
[29]. Through the identification process, players will formulate desires
to participate in online group gaming by viewing themselves as group
members, sharing in-group goals, and acting similar to other in-group
members [54–56]. Therefore, we hypothesize the following:
H10. Social identity is positively related to desire for online group
gaming.
4. Research methodology
We conducted a longitudinal field survey in China to empirically
validate our research model. A longitudinal survey has been proven
effective in establishing causality, reducing common method bias, and
observing players’ addictive behaviors over time [24,26]. Honor of
Kings, a popular multiplayer online social game, was employed as the
research context to examine the development of addictive gaming be-
havior. Details of the research setting, data collection procedures, and
measure development processes are discussed below.
4.1. Research setting
Honor of Kings is a multiplayer online social game released by
Tencent. The game requires players to login with their WeChat or QQ
accounts, the two dominant social media apps in China. After logging
in, players can group with other game community members to start a
5v5 online battle. Honor of Kings offers players two basic types of game
groups, namely “guilds” and “friends” (see Appendix E). Guilds are
formal game groups in which a collection of players are linked to one
another with specified names, goals, and norms [57]. Guild members
regularly play together in a group to raise their guild rankings and
points. They are able to communicate with other guild members
through various in-game features, such as guild messengers, guild
boards, and guild chatrooms [57]. Meanwhile, friends are informal
game groups with no specified names, goals, and norms. Members of
these groups include WeChat or QQ friends, general game community
friends, and location-based friends. Friend members can quickly form a
five-player group to participate in a battle. After the battle, the group
will temporarily disappear. Honor of Kings also provides in-game fea-
tures, such as friend messengers, to facilitate social interactions among
friend members. These socialization features make Honor of Kings
enjoy massive popularity among Chinese players. As of June 2017, the
game had over 50 million daily active users, 200 million registered
users, and an estimated quarterly revenue of $ 1.8 billion [58]. The
massive popularity of the game is accompanied with heavy criticism
from parents and teachers, who describe the game as addictive for
young gamers. The newspaper People’s Daily even describes the game as
a “digital drug” to teenagers [6]. These observations show that Honor of
Kings is an appropriate research setting for this study.
4.2. Data collection
Honor of Kings players were invited to complete online ques-
tionnaires at three different instances. Fig. 4 presents the data collection
timeline. At time T0 (wave 0), we conducted a pilot study with 33
Honor of Kings players to clarify the instructions and sentences in the
online questionnaires. The feedback of these players, such as on the
wording and layout of certain questions, helped us improve the final
questionnaires. At time T1 (wave 1), we recruited more than 2000
active Honor of Kings players to participate in the first survey. The
questionnaire items were used to measure desire for online group
gaming and its antecedents, including subjective norm, group norm,
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
social identity, anticipated enjoyment, and attitude. At time T2 (wave
2), six weeks later, the respondents in wave 1 were invited to partici-
pate in the second survey. Their responses were used to assess self-
regulation deficiency, habit, online social game addiction, and control
variables. To encourage participation, we offered $5 to respondents
who submitted information in both T1 and T2. After completing the
questionnaires at both waves 1 and 2, the promised reward was auto-
matically sent to the WeChat accounts of the participants.
We posted the final two questionnaires on a popular online survey
platform called Sojump. The URL of the questionnaires was randomly
distributed to the participants under the title “Opinion Survey
Regarding Honor of Kings Players’ Online Group Gaming Experiences.”
We employed the key informant method to help respondents effectively
retrieve their online group gaming experiences with the small friend-
ship groups in the social game community. Initially, the participants
were required to log in to Honor of Kings by using their WeChat ac-
counts. They should identify up to, but not necessarily, five game
community members with whom they regularly interacted. These
members could appear in either their friend lists or guild lists. Then, the
participants were asked to picture briefly the images of each group
member and recall their previous online group gaming experiences with
these members. They answered the questions by following the recall
information specific to their online group gaming experiences. The key
informant method was proposed by Seidler [59, p.816] to survey “a
small number of knowledgeable participants who observe and articu-
late social relationships for the researchers.” This method was widely
adopted to retrieve participants’ perceptions toward group-referent
behaviors with their small friendship groups in virtual communities
[26,29].
A total of 931 usable questionnaires were gathered at T1, and 627
valid responses were collected at both T1 and T2. WeChat accounts
were used to match the respondents’ answers in the two waves of data
collection. The average age of the respondents was approximately 22
years, and over 95% of the participants were aged below 30 years.
Furthermore, 69.4% of the respondents were males, 72.2% held ba-
chelor’s degrees or above, and 95.7% had a monthly income of US
$1500 or below. In terms of usage frequency and experience, the ma-
jority of the respondents reported playing Honor of Kings more than
three times per week (85.1%) and having at least three months of game
experience (92.5%). We checked for social desirability bias and
common method bias. As predicted, these subjective biases were not
major concerns of this study (see Appendix F).
4.3. Measurement development
All measurement items were adapted from well-established existing
scales (see Appendix G). We used the scales from Turel et al. [9] to
operationalize the dependent variable, namely online social game ad-
diction. The scales for habit were adapted from Turel and Serenko [16].
Self-regulation deficiency was a formative second-order construct with
three dimensions, namely affective irreplaceability, behavioral com-
pulsion, and cognitive preoccupation. The scales for affective irrepla-
ceability were adapted from Wang et al. [39], whereas the measures for
behavioral compulsion and cognitive preoccupation were borrowed
from Haagsma et al. [21]. Social identity was also a formative construct
with affective, cognitive, and evaluative elements. We followed Tsai
and Bagozzi [26] to develop the scales for these social identity di-
mensions. The measures for desire for socialization, attitude, and group
norm were adapted from Tsai and Bagozzi [26], the scales for anticipate
enjoyment were adapted from Lowry et al. [43], and the measures for
subjective norm were adapted from Lowry et al. [35].
We considered the impacts of possible control variables in the
model. All dependent variables were controlled for demographics, such
as age, gender, monthly income, and the level of education. For the
dependent variable habit, we also controlled for variables that were
significant in the habit literature [16,19,40], including usage frequency
X. Gong, et al.
Fig. 4. Data collection timeline.
and usage experience. The scales for usage frequency and experience
were adapted from Lowry et al. [35]. For the dependent variable self-
regulation deficiency, we further controlled for self-reactive expecta-
tion that was significant in prior research on self-regulation deficiency
[46]. The scales for self-reactive expectation were adapted from Lee and
LaRose [46]. For the dependent variable online social game addiction,
we controlled for predictors from the technology addiction literature
[9,16], including usage experience, usage frequency, and social desir-
ability bias. The scales for social desirability bias were adapted from
Reynolds [80].
5. Data analysis and results
We analyzed our research model by using partial least squares (PLS)
regression. PLS is more suitable than covariance-based structural
equation modeling for our complex research model that handles for-
mative constructs and their interactions [61]. Following the reporting
standards of Hair Jr et al. [62], we reported the PLS analysis results for
the measurement and structural models.
5.1. Measurement model
The measurement model of the reflective and formative constructs
was validated by adopting different approaches. We assessed the con-
vergent validity and discriminant validity of the reflective constructs
[62]. Tables 1 and 2 demonstrate that (1) the item loadings of all
constructs were higher than 0.7, (2) the average extracted variance
(AVE) values exceeded 0.5, (3) the composite reliability scores were
greater than 0.7, (4) the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were at 0.7 or
above, and (5) the square root of each construct’s AVE was larger than
the intra-construct correlations. These results indicated satisfactory
convergent validity and discriminant validity of our scales. We also
examined the weights, loadings, and multicollinearity of formative
constructs [62]. Table 3 indicates that (1) the weights and loadings of
all indicators were statistically significant, and (2) the variance infla-
tion factors (VIFs) were smaller than the suggested 3.3 threshold,
thereby raising minimal suspicions of multicollinearity [63]. These re-
sults highlighted that the formative indicators had an acceptable va-
lidity.
5.2. Structural model
Fig. 5 illustrates the PLS results of the structural model. The results
showed that habit (β = 0.13, p < 0.01) and self-regulation deficiency
(β = 0.69, p < 0.001) were positively associated with online social
game addiction. Therefore, H1 and H2 were supported. The interaction
effect of self-regulation deficiency and habit (β = 0.10, p < 0.01) on
online social game addiction was significant, thereby supporting H3.
Furthermore, desire for online group gaming was positively related to
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
habit (β = 0.28, p < 0.001) and self-regulation deficiency (β = 0.41,
p < 0.001), thereby confirming H4 and H5. Finally, attitude
(β = 0.06, p < 0.01), anticipated enjoyment (β = 0.12, p < 0.01),
group norm (β = 0.66, p < 0.001), and social identity (β = 0.10,
p < 0.01) were positively associated with desire for online group
gaming, while subjective norm (β = 0.03, p > 0.05) had a non-sig-
nificant role in forming desire for online group gaming. Therefore, H6,
H7, H9, and H10 were supported, while H8 was rejected. Apart from
usage frequency, self-reactive expectations, and social desirability bias,
none of the control variables were found to have significant effects.
Usage frequency (β = 0.20, p < 0.001) was positively associated with
habit, self-reactive expectation (β = 0.24, p < 0.001) was positively
related to self-regulation deficiency, and social desirability bias (β =
–0.12, p < 0.001) negatively affected online social game addiction.
Overall, the model explained 67%, 19%, 21%, and 59% of the variances
in desire for online group gaming, habit, self-regulation deficiency, and
online social game addiction, respectively.
We plotted the interaction effect for clarity. Fig. 6 plots the sig-
nificant interaction effect between self-regulation deficiency and habit
on online social game addiction. Consistent with Aiken and West [64],
we plotted such interaction by splitting self-regulation deficiency and
habit into high and low groups based on their median values and then
tested the simple slopes for the interaction. The results showed that
when players developed a high-level of habit, self-regulation deficiency
positively influenced online social game addiction (β = 0.79,
p < 0.001). Meanwhile, when players developed a low-level of habit,
the association between self-regulation deficiency and online social
game addiction became weaker albeit significant (β = 0.59,
p < 0.001).
6. Discussion and conclusion
This work seeks to understand how desire for online group gaming
affects players’ online social game addiction through the reflexive–re-
flective system. Our empirical results show that strong habit and self-
regulation deficiency positively influence online social game addiction.
Meanwhile, a strong habit will strengthen the impact of self-regulation
deficiency on online social game addiction. Furthermore, desire for
online group gaming facilitates habit and self-regulation deficiency,
which, in turn, fosters social game addiction. These findings confirm
the three key principles of dual-system theory: (1) the reflexive–re-
flective system imbalance fosters users’ technology addiction, (2) these
two systems often interact with each other to manifest their roles in
addictive technology use, and (3) the reflexive–reflective system im-
balance is influenced by temptation desires [15,24]. Our empirical re-
sults also support that attitude, anticipated enjoyment, group norm, and
social identity positively influence players’ desire for socialization.
These findings are congruent with the intentional social action litera-
ture [26,27,30], where informational, emotional, and social influences
X. Gong, et al. Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139

Table 1
Item factor loadings and cross-loadings.
SN GN ASI CSI ESI AE ATT DGG DAI DBC DCP HAB SGA

SN1 0.81 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.24 0.29 0.04 0.25 0.03 0.03 0.07 0.17 0.03
SN2 0.54* 0.20 0.19 0.18 0.17 0.16 0.09 0.16 0.07 0.03 0.09 0.14 0.01
SN3 0.85 0.27 0.27 0.27 0.26 0.36 0.08 0.30 0.07 0.09 0.13 0.25 0.04
SN4 0.78 0.27 0.28 0.24 0.25 0.35 0.13 0.26 0.13 0.09 0.12 0.18 0.04
SN5 0.74 0.22 0.25 0.25 0.33 0.36 0.12 0.22 0.11 0.11 0.13 0.22 0.06
SN6 0.76 0.19 0.23 0.24 0.33 0.34 0.10 0.23 0.09 0.10 0.12 0.19 0.07
GN1 0.29 0.92 0.49 0.41 0.44 0.46 0.27 0.67 0.35 0.33 0.32 0.28 0.27
GN2 0.28 0.90 0.47 0.36 0.41 0.38 0.23 0.68 0.28 0.25 0.25 0.20 0.20
ASI1 0.29 0.48 0.94 0.53 0.53 0.40 0.25 0.49 0.31 0.28 0.35 0.26 0.26
ASI2 0.33 0.51 0.94 0.47 0.58 0.46 0.24 0.51 0.29 0.24 0.29 0.24 0.22
CSI1 0.31 0.37 0.47 0.92 0.52 0.32 0.16 0.36 0.19 0.22 0.25 0.20 0.20
CSI2 0.29 0.41 0.51 0.93 0.48 0.31 0.17 0.38 0.20 0.23 0.25 0.20 0.18
ESI1 0.35 0.41 0.59 0.51 0.92 0.40 0.17 0.39 0.15 0.19 0.21 0.19 0.17
ESI2 0.32 0.46 0.51 0.50 0.93 0.37 0.15 0.43 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.20 0.15
AE1 0.44 0.41 0.38 0.29 0.37 0.87 0.21 0.45 0.26 0.30 0.31 0.34 0.21
AE2 0.36 0.40 0.43 0.33 0.37 0.92 0.28 0.45 0.30 0.35 0.31 0.34 0.24
AE3 0.37 0.43 0.41 0.31 0.37 0.92 0.26 0.46 0.30 0.31 0.28 0.32 0.19
ATT1 0.13 0.27 0.26 0.19 0.20 0.30 0.94 0.32 0.47 0.47 0.49 0.42 0.42
ATT2 0.11 0.25 0.24 0.18 0.16 0.26 0.95 0.28 0.45 0.45 0.48 0.40 0.42
ATT3 0.10 0.24 0.24 0.18 0.15 0.25 0.93 0.25 0.45 0.45 0.48 0.40 0.40
ATT4 0.12 0.25 0.22 0.10 0.09 0.20 0.82 0.26 0.40 0.38 0.41 0.38 0.36
DGG1 0.31 0.77 0.52 0.38 0.43 0.48 0.30 0.96 0.36 0.35 0.34 0.30 0.28
DGG2 0.32 0.75 0.50 0.39 0.41 0.48 0.28 0.95 0.36 0.34 0.31 0.27 0.28
DAI1 0.13 0.30 0.29 0.19 0.18 0.30 0.45 0.35 0.90 0.56 0.53 0.41 0.51
DAI2 0.10 0.32 0.28 0.18 0.14 0.29 0.45 0.34 0.94 0.55 0.55 0.40 0.51
DAI3 0.12 0.33 0.30 0.19 0.15 0.31 0.46 0.35 0.94 0.57 0.56 0.38 0.54
DAR4 0.08 0.35 0.31 0.22 0.15 0.29 0.46 0.36 0.94 0.59 0.58 0.40 0.56
DBC1 0.08 0.31 0.25 0.23 0.17 0.32 0.41 0.35 0.55 0.92 0.67 0.35 0.62
DBC2 0.08 0.30 0.28 0.23 0.19 0.34 0.47 0.35 0.59 0.95 0.61 0.40 0.65
DBC3 0.10 0.28 0.26 0.23 0.19 0.35 0.45 0.32 0.57 0.94 0.62 0.37 0.66
DBC4 0.12 0.29 0.24 0.22 0.17 0.29 0.45 0.32 0.55 0.89 0.69 0.40 0.64
DCP1 0.13 0.28 0.32 0.26 0.21 0.31 0.45 0.30 0.54 0.60 0.92 0.39 0.64
DCP2 0.18 0.27 0.31 0.22 0.16 0.29 0.38 0.31 0.50 0.58 0.86 0.43 0.52
DCP3 0.13 0.30 0.29 0.25 0.19 0.30 0.48 0.31 0.56 0.61 0.94 0.41 0.63
DCP4 0.10 0.29 0.31 0.25 0.20 0.29 0.53 0.32 0.56 0.63 0.91 0.39 0.64
HAB1 0.22 0.21 0.23 0.18 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.25 0.35 0.34 0.38 0.91 0.33
HAB2 0.23 0.19 0.22 0.18 0.18 0.30 0.38 0.23 0.35 0.37 0.40 0.90 0.33
HAB3 0.24 0.29 0.25 0.21 0.19 0.38 0.38 0.30 0.42 0.38 0.40 0.84 0.34
SGA1 0.08 0.18 0.19 0.15 0.08 0.22 0.20 0.19 0.39 0.39 0.44 0.35 0.64*
SGA2 0.04 0.14 0.16 0.13 0.12 0.15 0.16 0.16 0.27 0.35 0.37 0.19 0.68*
SGA3 0.00 0.14 0.15 0.13 0.13 0.09 0.19 0.15 0.28 0.42 0.40 0.14 0.75
SGA4 0.02 0.16 0.16 0.15 0.14 0.10 0.23 0.16 0.31 0.43 0.41 0.14 0.76
SGA5 0.05 0.10 0.11 0.08 0.06 0.09 0.12 0.11 0.21 0.35 0.30 0.11 0.71
SGA6 0.00 0.16 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.14 0.16 0.17 0.29 0.40 0.37 0.12 0.73
SGA7 0.08 0.24 0.26 0.21 0.16 0.21 0.52 0.28 0.55 0.58 0.60 0.37 0.71
SGA8 0.05 0.24 0.23 0.18 0.12 0.22 0.50 0.29 0.57 0.68 0.62 0.38 0.77
SGA9 0.04 0.26 0.23 0.16 0.16 0.23 0.49 0.28 0.58 0.69 0.66 0.41 0.80

Note: SN = subjective norm; GN = group norm; ASI = affective social identity; CSI = cognitive social identity; ESI = evaluative social identity; AE = anticipated
enjoyment; ATT = attitude; DGG = desire for online group gaming; DAI = affective irreplaceability; DBC = behavioral compulsion; DCP = cognitive preoccupation;
HAB = habit; SGA = online social game addiction; we remove the items loaded below 0.7 in the model validation.

are important determinants in predicting a user’s desire for group-re-
ferent behaviors with his/her group of virtual community friends.
Based on the above findings, our study confirms that desire for
online group gaming and the underlying deindividuation effect are the
main drivers of players’ online social game addiction. This indicates
that, at time T1 or earlier, a player may log into an online social game
and affiliate with a small friendship group (e.g., friend group, guild
group, or both) in a game community. The player can either participate
in the friendship group actively or be invited by other in-group mem-
bers passively. After becoming a member of the group, s/he is likely to
play the game together with other in-group members and formulate in-
group attitudes, emotions, norms, and identities. These informational,
emotional, and social determinants contribute to the player’s desire for
gaming with her/his group of community friends. At time T2, the
augmented desire for online group gaming deindividuates and im-
merses the player within her/his small friendship group. Such deindi-
viduation effect not only leads the player to play the game with her/his
community friends repetitively and habitually, but also gradually
diminishes her/his self-regulation in adjusting such online group
gaming behavior. As a consequence, even if the player recognizes that
her/his habitual online group gaming has become addictive, s/he is
incapable of regulating such indulgence. In this case, the reflexive–re-
flective system imbalance, which is manifested as the combination of a
strong habit and a deficient self-regulation, further fosters online social
game addiction.
6.1. Implications for theory
This study offers several key theoretical implications. First, this
study contributes to the technology addiction literature by investigating
the impact of social factors (i.e., desire for online group gaming) on
online social game addiction. The extant literature mainly aims to
identify the antecedents of technology addiction pertaining to socio-
psychology factors, such as personality traits [1], perceived enjoyment
[12,16], and habit [15,16,19]. However, limited research has examined
the impacts of social factors on users’ technology addiction, especially

8
X. Gong, et al. Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139

Table 2
Construct correlations and descriptive statistics.
SN GN ASI CSI ESI AE ATT DGG DAI DBC DCP HAB SGA

SN 0.77
GN 0.31 0.91
ASI 0.33 0.53 0.94
CSI 0.32 0.42 0.53 0.92
ESI 0.36 0.47 0.59 0.54 0.93
AE 0.44 0.46 0.45 0.34 0.41 0.90
ATT 0.12 0.28 0.26 0.18 0.17 0.28 0.91
DGG 0.33 0.69 0.54 0.40 0.44 0.50 0.31 0.95
DAI 0.11 0.35 0.32 0.21 0.17 0.32 0.49 0.38 0.93
DBC 0.11 0.32 0.28 0.24 0.19 0.35 0.48 0.36 0.61 0.92
DCP 0.15 0.31 0.34 0.27 0.21 0.33 0.51 0.34 0.60 0.65 0.91
HAB 0.26 0.26 0.26 0.21 0.21 0.37 0.44 0.30 0.43 0.41 0.45 0.88
SGA 0.04 0.26 0.25 0.20 0.17 0.22 0.47 0.29 0.57 0.61 0.67 0.36 0.75
Mean 5.64 5.10 5.03 5.13 5.39 5.39 2.97 5.14 3.90 3.55 3.69 4.75 3.59
SD 0.82 1.25 1.29 1.28 1.21 1.04 1.37 1.29 1.57 1.56 1.47 1.14 1.23
AVE 0.59 0.83 0.89 0.85 0.86 0.81 0.83 0.91 0.87 0.85 0.82 0.78 0.57
CR 0.88 0.91 0.94 0.92 0.93 0.93 0.95 0.95 0.96 0.96 0.95 0.91 0.90
CV 0.83 0.80 0.87 0.83 0.84 0.88 0.93 0.90 0.95 0.94 0.93 0.86 0.88

Note: SN = subjective norm; GN = group norm; ASI = affective social identity; CSI = cognitive social identity; ESI = evaluative social identity; AE = anticipated
enjoyment; ATT = attitude; DGG = desire for online group gaming; DAI = affective irreplaceability; DBC = behavioral compulsion; DCP = cognitive preoccupation;
HAB = habit; SGA = online social game addiction; Mean = mean values; SD = standard deviation; AVE = average variance extracted; CR = composite reliability;
CA = Cronbach’s Alpha; bold diagonal represents the square root of AVE.

Table 3
Weights, VIFs, and loadings of formative constructs.
Construct Dimension Weights VIFs Loadings

Social identity Affective social identity 0.68*** 2.04 0.95***

Cognitive social identity 0.20* 1.64 0.71***
Evaluative social identity 0.28** 1.85 0.78***
Self-regulation deficiency Affective irreplaceability 0.30*** 1.95 0.80***
Behavioral compulsion 0.51*** 2.91 0.93***
Cognitive preoccupation 0.32*** 2.83 0.89***

Note: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; VIFs = variance inflation factors.

with regard to online social game contexts. With the widespread pro-
liferation of social networking sites, online social games have progres-
sively integrated the daily lives of online players. At the same time,
engaging in online group gaming has rapidly become a prevalent digital
pastime for game players in online social game communities [1]. Thus,
investigating the antecedents of players’ addictive behavior pertaining
to social factors is theoretically and practically significant. This study is
among the first to fill this knowledge gap in the technology addiction
literature by theorizing and empirically testing the impact of desire for
Fig. 6. Interaction effect between self-regulation deficiency and habit.
online group gaming on online social game addiction. Our empirical
results offer a nomological framework of desire for online social game
addiction with respect to how such desire is formulated by informa-
tional, emotional, and social determinants, and how it fosters players’
social game addiction through the reflexive and reflective systems.
Second, this study advances the technology addiction literature by
introducing dual-system theory to the context of online social game

Fig. 5. Structural model.

Note: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, and ***p < 0.001.

9
X. Gong, et al.
addiction. Dual-system theory has been originally employed by so-
ciologists to understand substance addiction, such as overeating, binge
drinking, and drug dependence [22,23]. Recently, some IS scholars
have started to apply the theory to investigate technology addiction,
including mobile phone addiction [15,25,42], Facebook addiction
[24,28], and microblog addiction [39]. However, the technology ad-
diction literature yields scanty evidence on the applicability of dual-
system theory to understand online social game addiction [86–89]. Our
empirical findings confirm that dual-system theory is also applicable to
online social game addiction. Thus, this study can serve as a starting
point for future addiction-related research in the online social game
industry.
Third, this study contributes to dual-system theory by summarizing
and empirically validating three key principles in technology addiction
research. These three principles suggest that (1) technology addiction is
an outcome of the imbalance between the reflexive and reflective sys-
tems; (2) the two systems often interact with each other to influence
technology addiction; and (3) temptation desires formulate the reflex-
ive–reflective system imbalance [15,22–24]. The above principles
clearly elaborate the relationships among the principal elements of
dual-system theory, including temptation desires, the reflexive system,
the reflective system, and addictive behaviors. The majority of prior
addiction studies have only examined either one or two principles of
this theory (see Appendix B), thereby offering an incomplete under-
standing of dual-system theory with respect to users’ addictive beha-
viors. We expect that the three key principles can address such in-
completeness and serve as bases for future technology addiction
research.
Fourth, this study enriches dual-system theory by integrating desire
for online group gaming and the deindividuation effect into the theory.
The majority of the previously examined desires pertain to “desire for
individual-referent behaviors,” such as desire for alcohol [23] and
craving for candy [65]. Few studies recognize the influence of “desire
for socialization and group-referent behaviors” when using dual-system
theory to investigate addictive behaviors. In online social game com-
munities, we employ desire for online group gaming as a contextual
manifestation of desire for socialization and group-referent behaviors.
Such desire deindividuates players into a small friendship group in a
large game community [26,32]. This deindividuation effect causes
players to experience a shift of self-awareness from the individuality to
the group [35], which further leads to a reflexive–reflective system
imbalance and online social game addiction. Integrating the deindivi-
duation effect into dual-system theory can provide plausible explana-
tions for such group-referent addiction phenomenon. Therefore, our
work extends dual-system theory from individual-referent addictive
behaviors to group-referent addictive behaviors.
6.2. Implications for practice
This study also offers several key practical implications. First, our
findings suggest that altering the reflexive–reflective system imbalance
can help players recover from online social game addiction. By re-
flecting on the conceptualization and measures of such imbalance,
players can take steps to (1) disrupt their habits and (2) enhance their
self-regulation abilities in playing online social games. Several inter-
ventions for modifying and breaking habits can be derived from the
extant habit literature [41]. For example, reducing gaming frequency
and daily gaming time can quickly diminish players’ online social game
habits [66]. Furthermore, imposing restrictions on the use of in-game
features (e.g., guild messengers, boards, and chatrooms) can also make
players escape from a habitual gaming state [16]. Players may also
adopt regulatory strategies, such as information- and capacity-enhan-
cing measures, to control their self-regulation deficiency. Information-
enhancing measures focus on those players who are unaware of the
detrimental consequences of their game addiction and are in need of
such information to prevent distorted emotion, maladaptive thoughts,
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Information & Management 56 (2019) 103139
and behavioral compulsion [1]. For example, players could pay atten-
tion to game playing statistics and warnings presented at the game
interface. Capacity-enhancing measures focus on the efforts of families,
educational institutions, and game providers in monitoring players’
gaming behavior [1]. With the help coming from important external
sources (e.g., families and teachers), players can gradually reinforce
self-disciplinary and rational regulation abilities.
Second, our study shows that desire for online group gaming gra-
dually leads to a reflexive–reflective imbalance and eventually fosters
online social game addiction. Thus, the psychological affiliation of
addicted players with their small friendship groups should be reduced
and their desire for gaming with their group of community friends
should be controlled. Addicted players should be aware of the adverse
influences of their small friendship group affiliation and reduce their
gaming time with in-group members as soon as possible. When these
players want to participate in online group gaming, they can do other
group activities instead, such as playing basketball. Such “attention
switch” can help these players inhibit their desires for online group
gaming [17]. Families and educational institutions can also conduct
family conversations and on-campus workshops, respectively, to per-
suade addicted players to temporarily stay away from their small
friendship groups. Game providers may also send emails to addicted
players to encourage them to reduce the time and frequency of their
online group gaming. They may even temporarily ban these addicted
players from in-game talking, cooperating, or grouping with others
until the players control their game addiction.
6.3. Limitations and future research
This study has several limitations that offer opportunities for future
work. First, the generalizability of the research findings may be limited
because we only investigate one type of online social game (e.g., Honor
of Kings). Different online social games have unique characteristics and
support distinct social interactions that may influence players’ online
social game addiction. As suggested by Liu et al. [2], online social
games can be classified into casual digital games, team simulation
games, and massive multiplayer games. Casual digital games, such as
Candy Crush and chess games, support skilled-based matching and
competitive interactions where two or more players compete to be the
best. Team simulation games, such as Virtual Peace, allow cooperative
interactions in which players coordinate with one another in a team to
face common challenges. Massive multiplayer games, such as World of
Warcraft, League of Legends, and Honor of Kings, offer both competi-
tive and cooperative interactions where players join groups and com-
pete with one another as a group. To examine the generalizability of our
findings, future studies are suggested to extend our research to other
online social game contexts. Second, this research only examines desire
for online group gaming as a contextual manifestation of desire for
socialization and group-referent behaviors. In online social game
communities, players may experience various types of social interac-
tions, such as developing interpersonal relationships, grouping with
others, and playing as a part of a friendly casual guild. Although en-
gaging in online group gaming has increasingly become the dominant
social interaction activity for most players in online social game com-
munities, it may not fully reflect players’ desire for socialization. Thus,
future research should further develop the concept of desire for socia-
lization and investigate the role of socialization in the formation of
online social game addiction.
6.4. Conclusion
This study advances our understanding of online social game ad-
diction by introducing a dual-system theory perspective and examining
the impact of desire for online group gaming. Desire for online group
gaming, which is formed by attitude, anticipated enjoyment, group
norm, and social identity, deindividuates players in their group of
X. Gong, et al.
community friends. Such deindividuation effect further facilitates
players’ habitual group gaming and diminishes their self-regulation
toward group gaming, thereby leading to online social game addiction.
These findings highlight the impacts of desire for online group gaming
on online social game addiction and integrate the deindividuation effect
into dual-system theory. Therefore, our work contributes to a better
understanding of online social game addiction in particular and dual-
system theory in general.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this study was supported by grants from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71671174, No.
71801166) and the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (No. 7004777,
9042584).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the
online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2019.01.001.
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Xiang Gong is a PhD candidate in information systems at the joint PhD program between
the University of Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong. His
research interests include IT addiction, dark side of IT use, and financial IT. His research
has been published in international journals and conferences, such as International Journal
of Information Management, Computers in Human Behavior, and International Conference on
Information Systems.
Kem Z.K. Zhang* is associate professor at the Sun Yat-sen University. He received his
PhD degree in information systems from the joint PhD program between the University of
Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong. His research interests
include electronic commerce and consumer behaviors in new social media. He has pub-
lished papers in international journals, such as Decision Support Systems, Information &
Management, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Information
Technology & People, Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, and Computers in
Human Behavior. He has served on the editorial board of the Internet Research and as a
special issue associate editor for Decision Support Systems.
Christy M. K. Cheung is associate professor in Hong Kong Baptist University. She re-
ceived her Ph.D. degree from City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include
social media, e-commerce, knowledge management, IT adoption and usage, and societal
implications of information technology. She has published more than one hundred re-
fereed articles in international journals, conference proceedings, and research textbooks.
Her research articles have been published in MIS Quarterly Journal of Management
Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology, Journal of Information Technology, Information &
Management, among others. She has served on the editorial board of the Decision Support
Systems, Information & Management, and Internet Research.
Chongyang Chen is assistant professor in Soochow University. She received her PhD
degree in information systems at the joint PhD program between the University of Science
and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include
IT usage and addiction. Her research has been published in international journals and
conferences, such as International Journal of Information Management, Computers in Human
Behavior, and International Conference on Information Systems.
Matthew K.O. Lee is chair professor of Information Systems & E-Commerce at the
College of Business, City University of Hong Kong. He is the principal investigator of a
number of CERG grants and has published in leading journals in his field, such as MIS
Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of International Business
Studies, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Decision Support Systems, Information
& Management, among others. He has served on the editorial board of the Information
Systems Journal and served as a special issue Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly.