Marketing Gamification - Concepts, Opportunities and Future Research Directions: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This study examines the idea of marketing gamification using research publications screened between 2016 and 2024. Marketing gamification is the application of game design features in non-gaming circumstances, is gaining popularity as an instrument for increasing user engagement, motivation, and finally, purchasing decisions. The intent of this research is to contribute to a better comprehension of marketing gamification while developing marketing techniques to impact customer purchasing behavior. Additionally, this work advances the subject regarding its definition and mutual awareness, which are vital to the sustained growth of this specialized market segment. A systematic literature assessment of 59 existing papers was done, using data from two main databases: Google Scholar and Scopus. The time span of 2016-2024 was chosen for data gathering since it corresponds to when those papers were published. Marketing Gamification, albeit an emerging segment, is still in its infancy of business research. It is capable of being an appealing and niche consumer category when making purchasing selections. Current research focuses on the primary information pertaining to marketing gamification, major theories utilized in literature, publishing authors, journals, most cited articles, word cloud of well-known terms used in literature, year-wise publication trends, research characteristics, and holes in the literature for future investigation. At the end of this paper, recommendations are also made for future research directions. This study examines the possibilities and application of marketing gamification with a focus on conceptual development. The current study offers valuable contextual information and perceptive knowledge from an innovative perspective. The academic and management implications are thoroughly examined and discussed in this study.