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The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players

In previous research on in-app purchasing, one of the revenue sources for mobile games focuses on users’ unilateral relationships, such as their achievement, loyalty, and perception. However, little has been discussed about the commercial impact of the bilateral relationship. We extend discussions b...

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Autores principales: Li, Yiwen, Joo, Jaewoo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10045084/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36975230
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs13030205
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author Li, Yiwen
Joo, Jaewoo
author_facet Li, Yiwen
Joo, Jaewoo
author_sort Li, Yiwen
collection PubMed
description In previous research on in-app purchasing, one of the revenue sources for mobile games focuses on users’ unilateral relationships, such as their achievement, loyalty, and perception. However, little has been discussed about the commercial impact of the bilateral relationship. We extend discussions by examining an unprecedented issue, that is, the role of the bilateral relationships between users and mobile game companies in increasing in-app purchasing intention. We borrow from the business literature and psychology to hypothesize that when mobile game users co-create value with a mobile game company, their psychological ownership of the mobile game increases, which in turn increases their in-app purchasing intentions. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a carefully designed study by recruiting eighty-six Chinese game users. Half of the participants were exposed to an imaginary mobile game whose interface allowed them to co-create value with the mobile game company and the other half were exposed to an identical mobile game whose interface did not. We recruited participants from the two online platforms in which Chinese mobile game players gather—Weibo and WeChat Moment. Using SPSS 26, we conducted an independent samples test to test the effect of value co-creation and employed Hayes Model 4 to test whether psychological ownership mediated the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention. We found that (1) when participants were allowed to co-create value, their in-app purchasing intentions increased, and (2) the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention was mediated by psychological ownership. Our findings provide fresh insights for mobile game designers and marketers.
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spelling pubmed-100450842023-03-29 The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players Li, Yiwen Joo, Jaewoo Behav Sci (Basel) Article In previous research on in-app purchasing, one of the revenue sources for mobile games focuses on users’ unilateral relationships, such as their achievement, loyalty, and perception. However, little has been discussed about the commercial impact of the bilateral relationship. We extend discussions by examining an unprecedented issue, that is, the role of the bilateral relationships between users and mobile game companies in increasing in-app purchasing intention. We borrow from the business literature and psychology to hypothesize that when mobile game users co-create value with a mobile game company, their psychological ownership of the mobile game increases, which in turn increases their in-app purchasing intentions. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a carefully designed study by recruiting eighty-six Chinese game users. Half of the participants were exposed to an imaginary mobile game whose interface allowed them to co-create value with the mobile game company and the other half were exposed to an identical mobile game whose interface did not. We recruited participants from the two online platforms in which Chinese mobile game players gather—Weibo and WeChat Moment. Using SPSS 26, we conducted an independent samples test to test the effect of value co-creation and employed Hayes Model 4 to test whether psychological ownership mediated the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention. We found that (1) when participants were allowed to co-create value, their in-app purchasing intentions increased, and (2) the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention was mediated by psychological ownership. Our findings provide fresh insights for mobile game designers and marketers. MDPI 2023-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10045084/ /pubmed/36975230 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs13030205 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Li, Yiwen
Joo, Jaewoo
The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players
title The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players
title_full The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players
title_fullStr The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players
title_full_unstemmed The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players
title_short The Mediating Effect of Psychological Ownership on the Relationship between Value Co-Creation and the In-App Purchasing Intention of Mobile Games Players
title_sort mediating effect of psychological ownership on the relationship between value co-creation and the in-app purchasing intention of mobile games players
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10045084/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36975230
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs13030205
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