Exploring the serious uses of hedonic information systems

Abstract

In view of the new generation of people who are used to gaming and hedonic system environments, systems with hedonic features, including serious games and gamified applications, have emerged. In contrast to the conventional utilitarian systems, these systems take advantage of hedonic features of system design to enhance performance of serious work. Whereas many agreed that the hedonic features should be conducive, individual differences of users should be taken into consideration in evaluation of the effects of these features. Both traits and states of system users may influence the effects of the hedonic features on work performance.

The dissertation is composed of three studies. The first study sheds light on an established trait, the achievement goal orientation, and examines how contributors with different achievement goals participate under the influence of two common (de-)motivational stimuli on gamified crowdsourcing platforms, namely system design features and task nature. A free simulation experiment was conducted among undergraduate students with the use of a gamified crowdsourcing platform for two weeks. The results indicate that contributors with a strong performance-approach goal get better scores and participate in more crowdsourcing tasks. Contributors with a strong mastery-avoidance goal participate in fewer heterogeneous tasks. The study informs system designers’ decisions to include appropriate motivational stimuli for sustained contributor participation. Contributors with different achievement goals participate in crowdsourcing tasks to different extents under the influence of the two motivators/demotivators. Management is advised to approach performance-approach people if a leaderboard and a point system are incorporated into their crowdsourcing platforms. Also, management should avoid offering heterogeneous tasks to mastery-avoidance contributors.

The second study draws on literature of game studies and focuses on one more specific user trait, namely user orientation to challenge. The study shows the moderating role of the orientation in the relationship between an orthogonal game attribute, challenge, and learning outcomes. The results of the study suggest that the inclusion of players’ orientation toward orthogonal game attributes is a good approach to improving serious game design for better learning outcomes.

The last study shifts attention from user traits to states that can be induced by environments. The study focuses on randomness which is very common in hedonic system environments. It shows that randomness has an adverse impact on intention to use. The adverse impact is mediated by perceived control and curiosity. The study further demonstrates that people at a stronger arousal-avoidance state are less prone to the negative effects of randomness. Arousal-avoidance users tend to have a strong desire for cognitive closure and easily succumb to an illusion of control. The illusionary control compensates the loss of perceived control due to randomness. On theoretical implications, the study paves the way for future studies to objectively capture the adverse impacts of randomness. The study also shows the mechanisms through which entropy leads to deteriorated intention to use a system. On practical implications, given that removal of randomness in a hedonic system may not be feasible, system developers may provide users with a system-usage environment where users tend to avoid arousal.