Inducing individuals to engage in a gamified platform for environmental conservation
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-09-2019-0517 |
| Published date | 14 February 2020 |
| Date | 14 February 2020 |
| Pages | 692-713 |
| Author | Helen S. Du,Xiaobo Ke,Christian Wagner |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
Inducing individuals to engage in a
gamified platform for
environmental conservation
Helen S. Du
School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology,
Guangzhou, China, and
Xiaobo Ke and Christian Wagner
School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Abstract
Purpose –This research draws on goal framing theory and gamification affordance to understand how
gamificationdesignencourages users’continuoususage of informationsystems (IS)to perform proenvironmental
behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach –Survey data (N5307) were collected from users of a gamified IS
designed for environmental protection. The research model was examined with structural equation modeling.
Findings –Satisfying users’demand on green effectiveness, enjoyment, and social gain directly/indirectly
predicts users’intention to continue to utilize the gamified IS for proenvironmental behaviors. Moreover,
gamification affordance of autonomy support, visibility of achievement, competition, and interactivity
influences the satisfaction of the users’relevant demands.
Originality/value –This research contributes to the IS research for environmental sustainability at the
individual level. Specifically, this research extends the understanding of users’decision-making on continuance
and the role of gamification design in the context of gamified IS developed for environmental conservation.
Keywords Gamified information systems, Environment conservation, Proenvironmental behavior, Goal
framing theory, Gamification affordance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The deterioration of world environments is increasingly serious with the evidence of global
warming, deforestation, and so on (Cooper and Molla, 2017). As human behaviors have
enormous influences on the environmental quality (
€
Unal et al., 2018), many voices have called
for changes in individual habits and behaviors, changes that harm the environment less
(Gifford and Nilsson, 2014). In this circumstance, inducing individuals to adjust their habits
and perform more proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) is a fundamental way for
environmental conservation (Bhushan et al., 2018;Dimitropoulos, 2007). Here, PEB refers
to any individual behavior that is beneficial to the enhancement of the environmental quality
(Steg et al., 2014a). However, inducing individuals to perform PEBs is still challenging due to
the absence of clear guidelines to motivate individuals (Gifford and Nilsson, 2014) and the
lacking identification of reliable intervention (Unsworth et al., 2013). To solve these problems,
with the recognition of the potential of information systems (IS) on behavior shaping (Henkel
and Kranz, 2018) and environmental protection (Tim et al., 2018), society has also sought the
solution enabled by IS to encourage individuals to perform PEBs.
In the current exploration of IS inducing individuals to perform PEBs, Ant Forest is such a
promising solution. Released by Ant Financial (a famous company affiliated with Alibaba in
IMDS
120,4
692
This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71572050),
Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 2019A1515011731), and in part by the
Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR under GRF Project No. 11610419.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 30 September 2019
Revised 9 December 2019
Accepted 23 December 2019
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 120 No. 4, 2020
pp. 692-713
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-09-2019-0517
China) in 2016, Ant Forest is the largest online platform of individual carbon accounts for
inducing individuals to perform PEBs (Yan, 2017). The substantial feature of this platform is
gamification design. Gamification, the use of game elements in nongame contexts (Seaborn
and Fels, 2015), is one of the most popular IS design strategies triggering individual
motivation to perform relevant behaviors (Hamari et al., 2018). Various game elements (e.g.,
leaderboards) are used in Ant Forest to encourage individuals to use it to perform PEBs (e.g.,
walking rather than driving and taking public transportation). Furthermore, performed
PEBs of individuals can be converted into “energy points”accordingly in their Ant Forest
accounts. Then, these “energy points”can be used by individuals to apply to plant real trees
in the arid area of China. So far, Ant Forest has induced over 220 million users to perform
PEBs (Javed, 2018). Furthermore, 10.25 million trees have been planted with users’efforts,
which equals to a 1.22 million ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (Yin, 2017).
The current success of Ant Forest implies that gamification is an effective design strategy
for IS to motivate users to perform PEBs. Despite the effectiveness of gamification design,
previous studies have also consistently found that it is difficult to maintain active user
engagement in a gamified IS due to the short-term effects of the game elements (Suh et al.,
2017). In the context of environmental conservation, individuals’continuous performance of
PEBs is even more critical as environmental protection is a long-term campaign and mission.
Hence, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms to encourage users’continuous usage of the
gamified IS that is designed for environmental conservation so that PEBs continue to be
performed. Whereas most existing IS studies on environmental protection are conducted at
organizational or social levels (Tim et al., 2018;Corbett et al., 2013), research at the individual
level is relatively limited. Thus, little is known about the factors influencing individuals’
continuous intention to use gamified IS for PEB performance. Moreover, compared with
considerable gamification studies in various contexts, such as in learning and working (e.g.,
Santhanam et al., 2016;Suh and Wagner, 2017), gamification research related to
environmental conservation is relatively limited. Accordingly, there is a paucity of
understanding on the role of gamification design in explaining continuance intention to
use gamified IS to perform PEBs. Due to such research gaps, the campaign of gamifying IS for
environmental conservation will finally fail to achieve sustainable development and ultimate
success. Thus, to bridge both research gaps and help the success of the campaign, two related
research questions were proposed: When engaging with gamified IS designed for
environmental conservation, (1) what factors influence users’intention to continue and (2)
how does gamification design affect users’intention to continue?
To answer the research questions, we proposed a research model based on goal framing
theory (GFT) and gamification affordance (GA). GFT explains that an individual’s PEB
is mainly triggered by three specific goals: normative goal, hedonic goal, and gain goal
(Lindenberg and Steg, 2007). In addition, these goals (e.g., hedonic goal) also play important
roles in the determination of individuals’attention to specific demands (e.g., demand for
enjoyment), which significantly influence their PEB decisions (Steg et al., 2014b). Influenced
by these three goals, users will pay close attention to relative demands when using the
gamified IS designed for environmental conservation (Steg and Vlek, 2009). Adapting GFT to
the current research context, this paper identified three users’relative demands derived from
three goals of GFT, namely green effectiveness, enjoyment, and social gain. Furthermore, this
research attempted to verify the relationships among these three demands and their
influences on users’intention to continue to use the gamified IS for PEBs. To identify the
paths to satisfy these users’demands, we applied the theory of GA, which refers to the
affordance emerging in the gamified IS (Suh et al., 2017). Affordance—widely described as
possibilities for action—is defined as the “multifaceted relational structure”(Faraj and Azad,
2012) or the combination between a technology (centering on properties of the thing) and the
user (centering on users’perceptions of the thing) (Evans et al., 2017). Therefore, affordance
Gamification
for
environmental
conservation
693
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