IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/svcbiz/v17y2023i1d10.1007_s11628-022-00518-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How monetization mechanisms in mobile games influence consumers’ identity extensions

Author

Listed:
  • Miikka J. Lehtonen

    (Rikkyo University)

  • J. Tuomas Harviainen

    (University of Tampere)

  • Annakaisa Kultima

    (Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture)

Abstract

Digital distribution and new business models have transformed mobile games from products to services. This servitization turn has enabled consumers to extend their identity in mobile games through prolonged engagement. Drawing on a qualitative study of 17 consumers and 16 producers of mobile games, we elucidate how servitization can have certain negative implications for consumers’ identities. Our findings reveal four interrelated facets through which consumers can extend their identity in mobile games and four corresponding monetization mechanisms. Overt monetization can create identity disconnections and we offer suggestions on re-establishing the connection.

Suggested Citation

  • Miikka J. Lehtonen & J. Tuomas Harviainen & Annakaisa Kultima, 2023. "How monetization mechanisms in mobile games influence consumers’ identity extensions," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 17(1), pages 113-136, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:svcbiz:v:17:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11628-022-00518-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11628-022-00518-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11628-022-00518-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11628-022-00518-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vandermerwe, Sandra & Rada, Juan, 1988. "Servitization of business: Adding value by adding services," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 314-324, December.
    2. Mai Thi My-Quyen & Le Nguyen Hau, 2021. "Transforming customer brand engagement to co-creation value through participation energy and effort," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 15(3), pages 493-514, September.
    3. J. Tuomas Harviainen & Jukka Ojasalo & Somasundaram Nanda Kumar, 2018. "Customer preferences in mobile game pricing: a service design based case study," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(2), pages 191-203, May.
    4. Russell W. Belk, 2013. "Extended Self in a Digital World," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(3), pages 477-500.
    5. Belk, Russell W, 1988. "Possessions and the Extended Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 139-168, September.
    6. Freida C. Palma & Silvana Trimi & Soon-Goo Hong, 2019. "Motivation triggers for customer participation in value co-creation," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(3), pages 557-580, September.
    7. Weijo, Henri & Bean, Jonathan & Rintamäki, Jukka, 2019. "Brand community coping," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 128-136.
    8. Olli I. Heimo & J. Tuomas Harviainen & Kai K. Kimppa & Tuomas Mäkilä, 2018. "Virtual to Virtuous Money: A Virtue Ethics Perspective on Video Game Business Logic," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 95-103, November.
    9. Casaló, Luis V. & Flavián, Carlos & Ibáñez-Sánchez, Sergio, 2021. "Be creative, my friend! Engaging users on Instagram by promoting positive emotions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 416-425.
    10. Chang-Su Kim & Eun-Hai Oh & Kyung Yang & Jae Kim, 2010. "The appealing characteristics of download type mobile games," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 4(3), pages 253-269, December.
    11. Frank, Alejandro G. & Mendes, Glauco H.S. & Ayala, Néstor F. & Ghezzi, Antonio, 2019. "Servitization and Industry 4.0 convergence in the digital transformation of product firms: A business model innovation perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 341-351.
    12. Miikka J. Lehtonen & Antti Ainamo & J Harviainen, 2020. "The four faces of creative industries: visualising the game industry ecosystem in Helsinki and Tokyo," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(9), pages 1062-1087, October.
    13. Zsofia Kenesei & Zsofia Bali, 2020. "Overcompensation as a service recovery strategy: the financial aspect of customers’ extra effort," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 14(2), pages 187-216, June.
    14. Sang M. Lee & DonHee Lee, 2020. "“Untact”: a new customer service strategy in the digital age," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, March.
    15. Lehdonvirta, Vili & Castronova, Edward, 2014. "Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262027259, December.
    16. Donna L Hoffman & Thomas P Novak & Eileen FischerEditor & Robert KozinetsAssociate Editor, 2018. "Consumer and Object Experience in the Internet of Things: An Assemblage Theory Approach," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(6), pages 1178-1204.
    17. Ruvio, Ayalla & Belk, Russell, 2018. "Strategies of the extended self: The role of possessions in transpeople's conflicted selves," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 102-110.
    18. Aaron C. Ahuvia, 2005. "Beyond the Extended Self: Loved Objects and Consumers' Identity Narratives," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 171-184, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas P. Novak & Donna L. Hoffman, 2019. "Relationship journeys in the internet of things: a new framework for understanding interactions between consumers and smart objects," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 216-237, March.
    2. Al-Abdin, Ahmed & Dean, Dianne & Nicholson, John D., 2016. "The transition of the self through the Arab Spring in Egypt and Libya," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 45-56.
    3. Karanika, Katerina & Hogg, Margaret K., 2020. "Self–object relationships in consumers’ spontaneous metaphors of anthropomorphism, zoomorphism, and dehumanization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 15-25.
    4. Oyedele, Adesegun & Simpson, Penny M., 2018. "Streaming apps: What consumers value," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 296-304.
    5. J. Tuomas Harviainen & Janne Paavilainen & Elina Koskinen, 2020. "Ayn Rand’s Objectivist Ethics Applied to Video Game Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(4), pages 761-774, December.
    6. Elliot, Esi A., 2016. "Craft consumption and consumer transformation in a transmodern era," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 18-24.
    7. Samuel Guillemot & Bertrand Urien, 2016. "Legacy Writing and the Consumption of Biographic Services," Post-Print hal-02466648, HAL.
    8. Strong, Carolyn A. & Martin, Brett A.S. & Jin, Hyun Seung & Greer, Dominique & O'Connor, Peter, 2019. "Why do consumers research their ancestry? Do self-uncertainty and the need for closure influence consumer's involvement in ancestral products?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 332-337.
    9. Adriana Manolica & Marius-Iulian Cluci & Teodora Roman, 2021. "The Consumer Explained through the Extended-Self," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(1), pages 572-581, August.
    10. Markos, Ereni & Labrecque, Lauren I. & Milne, George R., 2018. "A New Information Lens: The Self-concept and Exchange Context as a Means to Understand Information Sensitivity of Anonymous and Personal Identifying Information," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 46-62.
    11. Fetscherin, Marc & Heinrich, Daniel, 2015. "Consumer brand relationships research: A bibliometric citation meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 380-390.
    12. Voyer, Benjamin G. & Kastanakis, Minas N. & Rhode, Ann Kristin, 2017. "Co-creating stakeholder and brand identities: A cross-cultural consumer perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 399-410.
    13. Ruvio, Ayalla & Belk, Russell, 2018. "Strategies of the extended self: The role of possessions in transpeople's conflicted selves," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 102-110.
    14. Natalia Rogova & Shashi Matta, 2023. "The role of identity in digital consumer behavior: A conceptual model and research propositions based on gender," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 13(1), pages 55-70, June.
    15. Erz, Antonia & Heeris Christensen, Anna-Bertha, 2018. "Transforming Consumers Into Brands: Tracing Transformation Processes of the Practice of Blogging," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 69-82.
    16. Hollenbeck, Candice R. & Patrick, Vanessa M., 2016. "Mastering survivorship: How brands facilitate the transformation to heroic survivor," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 73-82.
    17. Martin P. Fritze & Andreas B. Eisingerich & Martin Benkenstein, 2019. "Digital transformation and possession attachment: examining the endowment effect for consumers’ relationships with hedonic and utilitarian digital service technologies," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 311-337, June.
    18. Kathleen S. Micken & Scott D. Roberts & Jason D. Oliver, 2020. "The digital continuum: the influence of ownership, access, control, and Cocreation on digital offerings," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 10(1), pages 98-115, June.
    19. Cerio, Eva & Debenedetti, Alain, 2021. "“Should I give it away or sell it?” A strategic perspective on consumers’ redistribution of their unused objects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 581-591.
    20. Serena Galvani & Elisa Carloni & Roberta Bocconcelli & Alessandro Pagano, 2022. "From After-Sales to Advanced Services: A Network Analysis on the Impacts of Digital Servitization Evolution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:svcbiz:v:17:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11628-022-00518-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.