EFFECTS OF GAMIFICATION ELEMENTS ON PURCHASE INTENTION MEDIATING ROLE OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND USER EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Gamification has been growing exponentially in the financial services market due to the significant need to keep up with the pace of fintech innovations. The purpose of this research is twofold: (1) to determine the mediating role of user experience and customer engagement between gamification elements and purchase intentions, and (2) exploring how an immediate reward (or delayed reward) induces user experience, customer engagement, and purchase intentions. Our empirical study used "QAMEFULQUEST" to measure the effectiveness gamification elements in the M-banking service context. Using a quantitative survey-based research technique, the data was collected from 340 M-banking service consumers in Pakistan by using a purposive sampling technique. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multivariate analysis of variances (MANOVA) were used to test the research hypotheses. The findings of study 1 depict that gamification elements are positively correlated with our mediating variables (user experience and customer engagement), which leads to a positive relationship between customer engagement and purchase intention. Moreover, study 2 indicates that our experimental variable (reward timing) correlates positively with the dependent variables (user experience, customer engagement, and purchase intention). These results suggest that companies should offer immediate rewards instead of delayed rewards that positively affect consumer behavior. This study will enable the banks to use gamifiation elements in a way that will increase sales, profitability, loyalty, and overall revenue. This research has suggested some crucial managerial and theoretical implications by examining the effects of gamification elements on Mbanking applications. Keywords: Gamification, Gamification Elements, User Experience, Customer Engagement, Purchase Intention, Reward Timing, Immediate vs. Delayed, M-banking, Consumer Behavior