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International Journal of Crowd Science 2017, 1(1): 71-82 https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCS-12-2016-0001
Conceptual paper | Open Access | Issue | Published: 06 March 2017

Motivation mechanism of gamification in crowdsourcing projects

Show Author's Information Zhiyuan Zeng( ),  Jian Tang,  Tianmei Wang
School of Information, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China
Keywords:
Gamification, Crowd behaviour analysis, Crowd-sourced design and engineering, Task-oriented crowdsourcing
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Zeng Z, Tang J, Wang T. Motivation mechanism of gamification in crowdsourcing projects. International Journal of Crowd Science, 2017, 1(1): 71-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCS-12-2016-0001
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Abstract Full text About this article
Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the participation behaviors in the context of crowdsourcing projects from the perspective of gamification.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper first proposed a model to depict the effect of four categories of game elements on three types of motivation based upon several motivation theories, which may, in turn, influence user participation. Then, 5 × 2 between-subject Web experiments were designed for collecting data and validating this model.

Findings

Game elements which provide participants with rewards and recognitions or remind participants of the completion progress of their tasks may positively influence the extrinsic motivation, whereas game elements which can help create a fantasy scene may strengthen intrinsic motivation. Besides, recognition-kind and progress-kind game elements may trigger the internalization of extrinsic motivation. In addition, when a task is of high complexity, the effects from game elements on extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation will be less prominent, whereas the internalization of extrinsic motivation may benefit from the increase of task complexity.

Originality/value

This study may uncover the motivation mechanism of several different kinds of game elements, which may help to find which game elements are more effective in enhancing engagement and participation in crowdsourcing projects. Besides, as task complexity is used as a moderator, one may be able to identify whether task complexity is able to influence the effects from game elements on motivations. Last, but not the least, this study will indicate the interrelationship between game elements, individual motivation and user participation, which can be adapted by other scholars.


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Abstract
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About this article

Motivation mechanism of gamification in crowdsourcing projects

Show Author's information Zhiyuan Zeng( ), Jian Tang, Tianmei Wang
School of Information, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the participation behaviors in the context of crowdsourcing projects from the perspective of gamification.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper first proposed a model to depict the effect of four categories of game elements on three types of motivation based upon several motivation theories, which may, in turn, influence user participation. Then, 5 × 2 between-subject Web experiments were designed for collecting data and validating this model.

Findings

Game elements which provide participants with rewards and recognitions or remind participants of the completion progress of their tasks may positively influence the extrinsic motivation, whereas game elements which can help create a fantasy scene may strengthen intrinsic motivation. Besides, recognition-kind and progress-kind game elements may trigger the internalization of extrinsic motivation. In addition, when a task is of high complexity, the effects from game elements on extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation will be less prominent, whereas the internalization of extrinsic motivation may benefit from the increase of task complexity.

Originality/value

This study may uncover the motivation mechanism of several different kinds of game elements, which may help to find which game elements are more effective in enhancing engagement and participation in crowdsourcing projects. Besides, as task complexity is used as a moderator, one may be able to identify whether task complexity is able to influence the effects from game elements on motivations. Last, but not the least, this study will indicate the interrelationship between game elements, individual motivation and user participation, which can be adapted by other scholars.

Keywords: Gamification, Crowd behaviour analysis, Crowd-sourced design and engineering, Task-oriented crowdsourcing

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 23 November 2016
Revised: 12 January 2017
Accepted: 17 January 2017
Published: 06 March 2017
Issue date: March 2017

Copyright

© The author(s)

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No.14AZD045).

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Zhiyuan Zeng, Jian Tang and Tianmei Wang. Published in International Journal of Crowd Science. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

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