When Gamification Falls Short: Probing Lurker Resistance to Brand Value Co-Creation

Abstract

Brand value co-creation involves collaboration between companies and end users to drive business growth and innovation. While gamification is widely used to promote engagement in co-creative platforms, its limitations in engaging passive users—commonly known as lurkers—remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by surveying lurkers on the global gamified travel review platform TripAdvisor. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, thematic analysis of focus group discussions revealed key disengagement patterns, which were then validated through a cross-sectional survey analyzed via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). As a result, an empirical model titled Lurkers’ Rationale in Gamified Co-Creative Platforms is introduced, elucidating lurkers’ persistent passivity even when incentivized by gamified features, while also revealing a latent interplay between technological and organizational lurking factors in gamified settings. Practical measures to address gamification’s shortcomings are also reported and discussed. The findings contribute to both research and practice, particularly for crowdsourcing platforms, whose effectiveness inherently depends on user participation.