Overcoming the monetization challenge in freemium online games

Abstract

Purpose: Online games based on a freemium business model face the monetization challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how players’ achievement orientation, social orientation and sense of community contribute to willingness to pay (WtP). Design/methodology/approach: A multi-method study of an online game community is used. Interviews and participant observation are used to develop an understanding of social and achievement orientations followed by the development of hypotheses that are tested using survey data. Findings: The findings indicate that a sense of community is positively related to WtP, whereas satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the service provider is not. The authors examine the moderating role of players’ achievement orientation and social orientation and find that while a stronger connection to the community may encourage achievement-oriented players to pay, the opposite is indicated for socially oriented players. Practical implications: Decision makers need to understand that not all players are potential payers; while socially oriented users can help to maintain and grow the community, achievement-oriented players are more likely to pay for the value they extract from the community. Originality/value: While communities are held together by people with common interests, which intuitively suggests that WtP increases with the strength of connection to the community, the authors find this only applies in the case of players with an achievement orientation. For those with a social orientation, WtP may actually decrease as their connection to the community increases. These perhaps counter-intuitive findings constitute a novel contribution of value for both theory and practice.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-08-2018-0350
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Operations & Information Management
College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School
Additional Information: Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited
Uncontrolled Keywords: Achievement orientation,Mixed methods,Monetization,Online games,Social orientation,Management Information Systems,Industrial relations,Computer Science Applications,Strategy and Management,Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Publication ISSN: 1758-5783
Last Modified: 12 Feb 2024 08:27
Date Deposited: 26 Jun 2019 10:28
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://www.eme ... -0350/full/html (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2019-07-08
Accepted Date: 2019-05-31
Authors: Beltagui, Ahmad (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-2687-0971)
Schmidt, Thomas
Candi, Marina
Roberts, Deborah

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