To stay or not to stay? Discontinuance intention of gamification apps

Abstract

Purpose As the application of gamification is gaining great attention and has grown increasingly, thousands of these applications can be easily obtained from mobile phone stores, thus causing intensified competition and discontinuance of use accordingly. Besides, though understanding what factors influence the discontinuance of use of information systems (ISs) is critical for theoretical as well as practical reasons, studies pertaining to the saliency of the final phase, termination of an IS, are still limited. As such, the purpose of this paper is to propose a holistic view to fulfill the above-mentioned research gaps based on the expectation-confirmation model with other salient factors such regret, habit and gamification app values. Design/methodology/approach The context of a fitness gamification app is investigated. A total of 210 valid responses were received, and structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis. Findings The findings of this paper are as follows: among all factors influencing discontinuance intention, regret is the strongest, habit is second and gamification is third; among all factors affecting user satisfaction, gamification app value is the strongest, confirmation is second, perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use are third and regret is the last one; for factors influencing users’ habits, satisfaction is the strongest, following by PU and frequency of prior use; confirmation negatively influences the degree of regret; and confirmation positively influences PU. Originality/value This study highlights the important determinants influencing users’ discontinuance intentions in the context of gamification apps by incorporating two overlooked factors, regret and habit. Besides, this study suggests that app designers can not only increase user’s perceived value through external cooperation with other alternatives, but can be through internal enhancement with diverse services development as well.

The Influence of Gamification and Information Technology Identity on Postadoption Behaviors of Health and Fitness App Users: Empirical Study in the United States

“…Building a gamified health and fitness app requires substantial investment. However, a highly competitive market and misalignment of gamification mechanisms with main users’ motivations could result in switching or discontinuance uses [ 47 ]. According to Conroy et al [ 73 ], many fitness apps use similar designs with ineffective gamification techniques.…”

“…This could be a plausible reason for the insufficient effectiveness in the design of many gamified health and fitness apps to attract and keep their users. Previous studies have mentioned that infective gamification may lead to the users’ discontinuance intention in the context of health and fitness apps [ 47 ]. This study provides a richer explanation and defines ineffective gamification as gamified elements that cannot contribute to individuals’ self-identification.…”

“…Applying various gamification mechanisms to health and fitness apps is insufficient because they alone cannot shape postadoption behaviors (such as information sharing and continued intention to use the apps). Previous studies demonstrate that users will not continue using gamified apps or are not likely to disclose their health information simply because they have gamified designs [ 47 ]. On the same basis, gamification mechanisms may result in positive use behavior only if the gamified design first fosters IT identity.…”

How the social dimension of fitness apps can enhance and undermine wellbeing

“…Social motivations have also been found to predict both fitness app use (Stragier et al, 2016) and attitude towards the app (Hamari and Koivisto, 2015). In addition to the adoption of fitness apps, studies have considered the factors related to the discontinuance intentions, with habit and post-adoption regret influential in such decisions (Huang, Chen and Liu, 2019).…”

Gamified money: exploring the effectiveness of gamification in mobile payment adoption among the silver generation in China

“…Among the various theoretical perspectives used to explore technology adoption, Davis et al's (1989) technology acceptance model (TAM) is regarded as the most widely acknowledged and influential theoretical model of behavior (Huang et al, 2019;Kim and Crowston, 2011;Muñoz-Leiva et al, 2017). TAM has been used in studies on gamified technologies (Rodrigues et al, 2017;Wang and Sun, 2016;Zheng, 2019) and technology adoption among the elderly (Wu et al, 2017).…”