Convincing individuals to donate is a challenge for nonprofit organizations. This research builds on the concept of moral balance to examine the asymmetric effects of prior moral actions on individuals’ likelihood of donating. Through five experiments, we show that individuals with a negative moral balance are more likely to donate as a form of moral compensation. Conversely, those with accumulated moral credit tend to donate less because of moral licensing. Our findings further reveal that communications framed with a shorter moral distance are more effective at encouraging donations among individuals with a positive moral balance. In contrast, lower-level construal frames are better suited to engage individuals with a negative moral balance. This research contributes by highlighting asymmetry in moral regulation: the mechanisms that drive compensatory behavior differ from those that initiate a virtuous cycle. For charities, we suggest actionable strategies to tailor fundraising communications to the moral state of their audience.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the paradoxical impact of gamification loss through the lenses of social comparison theory and the corresponding predominant reaction, i.e., envy. Based on three scenario-based experiments, this study investigates the ability of loss in gamified contexts to promote work engagement while decreasing coworker relationship quality. The results reveal that losses in gamified contexts promote job engagement but decrease coworker relationship quality. These effects are mediated by benign envy toward winning colleagues. The findings further reveal that when employees perceive a high likelihood of winning or a strong sense of control over their performance, the impacts of contest losses on both engagement and relationship quality via benign envy become stronger. This paper contributes to the gamification literature by highlighting the paradoxical effects of gamified workplaces, which can simultaneously fuel work engagement and strain coworker relationship quality.

PurposeAs smart objects penetrate daily life, they transform service systems by connecting diverse actors (individuals, organizations and objects). Despite their relational potential, these smart service systems often fail to foster sustainable relationships, emphasizing technological features over human dynamics. Existing research largely focuses on technology and human-technology dyadic interactions, overlooking complex multi-actor relational dynamics. This paper addresses this critical gap by conceptualizing smart service systems through a relational lens, introducing the concept of smart service relationships (SSRs). Design/methodology/approachUsing an integrative review of 196 top-tier journal articles (2003-2025), fragmented literature on smart service systems is integrated to build a new conceptual framework. FindingsWe define SSRs as multi-actor, human-centered relationships that occur not only with but also through smart objects. The framework introduces three building blocks: first, SSR dimensions, interconnectedness and data agency, that influence how value emerges. Second, SSR value outcomes: enabled, disabled, instrumentalized and vulnerable smart relational value. These outcomes capture the asymmetric, dynamic nature of value in smart service systems. Third, SSR enablers: smart relational practices that enable actors to shift between value outcomes over time. Practical implicationsFindings are cross-validated and translated into actionable strategies through expert interviews. Originality/valueThis is the first study to conceptualize smart service systems through a relational perspective. It extends existing research by emphasizing systemic human interdependencies over technological features and introduces a nuanced, process-based comprehension of relational value.

Despite the popularity of gamification to improve the quality of experience in a variety of services, there is a lack of evidence on its effective integration into service design and the long-term impact of repeated gamified activities on customer experience. Using 10 studies, including behavioral data, survey, field, and laboratory experiments, this research investigates the effects of repeated gamified activities on customer experience quality and behavioral engagement. We examine the phenomenon through the lens of satiation theory, which explains the declining enjoyment for initially pleasurable activities. Supported by this theory, our results show evidence for a negative impact of gamified services that are highly repeated on experience quality and behavioral engagement. Further, we demonstrate strategies to compensate for such satiation by introducing mechanism and reward variety, a recovery period, and a sense of being near-to-winning. This research makes theoretical and managerial contributions by showing the potential backfire effects of gamification when gamified activities are repeated. Furthermore, this paper feeds the ongoing debate on standardization and personalization of service experiences. This paper demonstrates how high exposure to the same service experience can become counterproductive and increase risks of satiation.

Non-profit organisations are increasingly collaborating with celebrities to increase charitable donations. Consequently, choosing the right endorser to promote charitable giving is central to the communication strategy. The present research investigates how the attractiveness and credibility of celebrities, as well as cause-endorser matchup and meaning transfer, influence people’s donations. This research provides evidence of serial and parallel mediation effects by measuring and manipulating the four constructs in four separate studies. We demonstrate that credibility mediates the effect of attractiveness on generosity. Additionally, we highlight two legitimation pathways to explain how attractive endorsers become perceived as more credible cause promoters. This study provides a comprehensive model that illustrates, through an affective-cognitive-conative sequence, how attractiveness, congruence and meaning, and then credibility leads to charitable donations. Accordingly, we provide non-profit organisations with concrete and actionable recommendations for selecting celebrity endorsers.

FrenchRésuméLa collecte de dons caritatifs est un défi de tous les jours pour les organisations à but non lucratif. Les chercheurs et praticiens n’ont dès lors de cesse, dans l’espoir d’optimiser leur communication, que de tenter d’identifier des variables de segmentation aussi fiables qu’exploitables. Dans ce contexte, cette recherche vise à étudier la manière dont l’orientation politique, et plus particulièrement sa composante socioculturelle, peut affecter la générosité, ce en fonction du type de formulation utilisée par l’ONG. Combinant des données secondaires de terrain et des expérimentations, et à la lumière des motivations de type approche-évitement, nous mettons en avant l’intérêt pour les ONG d’adapter leur communication à l’orientation politique de leur cible. Cette recherche contribue à la littérature en identifiant les conditions selon lesquelles les libéraux et les conservateurs peuvent s’avérer de généreux donateurs. Nous démontrons l’efficacité d’une formulation de type approche auprès d’un public libéral, et d’une formulation de type évitement auprès d’un public conservateur. Nous identifions par ailleurs, en fonction de l’orientation politique du donateur, l’influence de la proximité perçue avec les bénéficiaires et celle du degré de justice sociale associée à la cause. A ce titre, cet article fournit aux ONG des pistes claires pour segmenter, adapter et améliorer la communication envers leur audience.

Soliciting charitable giving is a day-to-day challenge for nonprofit organizations (NPOs); thus, scholars and practitioners are increasingly looking for reliable and practical segmentation variables that NPOs can use to optimize their communication to potential donors. The present research examines how the sociocultural dimension of a political orientation may affect their donations according to the communication framing used by an NPO. Combining secondary field data and experiments, we highlight approach–avoidance motivations as a relevant framework for NPOs in adapting their communication to the political orientation of their audience. This research contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the conditions under which liberals and conservatives may donate more. We show the efficacy of approach-based framing for liberals and avoidance-based framing for conservatives. We also point out the influence of the perceived proximity of the beneficiaries and the degree of social justice associated with the cause according to the political orientation of donors. This article provides strong insight for NPOs to segment, adapt, and improve their communication with their audience.

On crowdfunding platforms, the success of campaigns relies on the ability of projects to attract backers. While backers’ motivations have been examined, the dynamics existing among the distinct profiles of backers remain underexplored. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this research offers a typology of backers’ profiles and shows how these profiles contribute to the success of a crowdfunding campaign. Informed by the sociological theory of cooperation, these results explain how backers with different profiles influence each other’s decisions to support crowdfunding campaigns. We provide guidelines to project leaders and platforms to attract backers with the best profiles at the best moment to optimise the campaign’s success strategy. We also help crowdfunding platform managers build their crowd of backers and optimise their number of funded projects.

Gamification has attracted considerable practitioner attention and has become a viable tactic for influencing behavior, boosting innovation, and improving marketing outcomes across industries. Simultaneously, studies on the use of gamification techniques have emerged in diverse fields, including computer science, education, and healthcare. Despite the broad popularity of gamification in other fields, it has received only limited attention in the service literature. Moreover, the findings of extant studies on gamification in the service field are inconclusive and suggest an incomplete understanding of the employment of gamification in service contexts. Thus, this study aims to integrate the growing but scattered cross-disciplinary literature on gamification and to emphasize its relevance to service research. Specifically, we first conceptualize gamification for service and differentiate it from related concepts. Then, using a systematic literature review, we identify 34 empirical articles that reflect this gamification conceptualization and can be connected to relevant service research themes (e.g., customer participation, experience, and loyalty). Employing activity theory, we derive four higher-order functions of gamification: production, consumption, exchange, and distribution. Finally, we develop a research agenda to generate a better understanding of the central aspects within each of the identified gamification functions and stimulate future academic efforts on gamification in services.

Offering customers a high-quality experience has become critical for companies. Scholars have therefore emphasized the opportunity to use gamification. However, despite the increasing popularity of such an approach, prior studies report mixed results. This research aims to reconcile these findings by identifying under which conditions gamification leads to a better experience. Drawing on uncertainty-resolution theory, we examine how uncertainty-to-win affects customer experience quality. The results from six studies, combining a field study and experiments, demonstrate the benefits of uncertainty-to-win for customer experience quality. We find that the uncertainty-to-win effect persists even after people are informed of a win/lose decision. Moreover, we highlight that losing the contest stresses the uncertainty-to-win effect, and consequently counter the harmful effect of loss. Conversely, we suggest that reward value mitigates the positive impact of uncertainty-to-win by focusing customers’ attention on a prize instead of on their experience. Our findings move the literature forward by underscoring how uncertainty-to-win is a condition that explains gamification’s ability to deliver a high-quality experience.

Résumé Offrir aux clients une expérience de qualité est devenu un enjeu critique pour les entreprises. A cette fin, les chercheurs ont mis en évidence l’opportunité d’utiliser la gamification. Cependant, et malgré la popularité grandissante de cette stratégie, les études rapportent des résultats divergents. Cette recherche vise à réconcilier les résultats antérieurs en identifiant les conditions dans lesquelles la gamification permet d’aboutir à une meilleure expérience. Sur base de la théorie de la résolution de l’incertitude, nous examinons comment l’incertitude de gagner affecte la qualité de l’expérience client. Les résultats de six études, combinant une enquête sur le terrain et des expérimentations, démontrent les bénéfices associés à l’incertitude de gagner en termes de qualité de l’expérience client. Nous montrons que cet effet existe pendant et après l’activité gamifiée, quand les participants sont informés de leur succès ou de leur échec. Par ailleurs, nous mettons en évidence que le fait de perdre le concours renforce l’impact positif de l’incertitude de gagner, ce qui suggère que l’incertitude de gagner permet de contrer l’effet négatif de l’aversion à l’échec lors d’un concours. A l’inverse, nous suggérons que la valeur de la récompense proposée atténue l’impact positif de l’incertitude de gagner en attirant l’attention du client sur l’enjeu plutôt que l’expérience vécue. Nos résultats contribuent à la littérature existante en soulignant le rôle de l’incertitude de gagner comme condition déterminante à la capacité de la gamification à délivrer une expérience de qualité.

Rethinking the workplace experience as a means for enhancing the well-being of frontline employees (FLEs) represents a key priority for services. The well-being of frontline employees leads to improved performance and better customer service, such that it enhances the firm’s overall competitive advantage and revenue. Therefore, engagement-facilitating technologies that can increase FLEs’ well-being, such as gamified work, hold promise in terms of their effects on job satisfaction and engagement. Using a mixed-method design, including in-depth interviews with FLEs and their managers, and two large field experiments, this research considers two key sectors in which FLEs are critical: retailing and telemarketing. The results highlight the negative impacts of gamified work on employee engagement and well-being, although the willingness of employees to participate in such gamified work moderates these negative impacts. By revealing how gamification affects FLEs’ well-being, job engagement, and job satisfaction, this research provides actionable insights for managers.

While online communities may enhance firm performance, they commonly fail to retain members. To address this challenge, scholars and managers call for the use of gamification. However, despite gamification's growing use in online communities, insight into its effect on member experience and behaviours remain limited. We hypothesise that gamification affects member-perceived distributive and procedural justice. In experimental studies, we assess the impact of in-gamification perceived justice on member contributions. We find that while high in-gamification perceived procedural justice acts as a necessary prerequisite for member contributions, high distributive justice can reduce game-related uncertainty, thereby rendering gamified practices less fun, particularly for low-engaged community members that tend to value rewards. We add to the literature by (a) pinpointing the core role of perceived justice in the persistence of online communities, and (b) unveiling that high distributive justice can lead gamification to backfire in online communities by affecting member experience and contributions.

Practitioners and researchers are seeking efficient mechanisms to stimulate and manage customer engagement. From this perspective, gamification – defined as the use of game mechanics in traditionally nongame contexts – appears to be particularly promising. This chapter offers an overview defining what gamification is and how it operates. A subsequent and quite important section is dedicated to the consequences of gamification and, more particularly, its effects on customer engagement. Building on the definition from Huotari and Hamari (2017), three key aspects of gamification are discussed in regard to customer engagement: motivational affordance, gameful experience and value realization. Benefits and drawbacks of gamification in terms of engagement are then provided. This chapter contributes to the ongoing debate about gamification by identifying additional and underresearched issues related to the implementation and management of gamification. Finally, given the increasing popularity and adoption of gamification in the business world, guidelines for practitioners on how to appropriately implement and manage gamification to engage customers over time will be provided throughout the various sections.

Despite the increasing use of gamification mechanics to engage customers in firms' activities, the risks related to such use remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, this research examines the impacts of losing a challenge, which is a phenomenon experienced by the majority of customers involved in gamified settings but underexplored in literature. We investigate the context of co-creation communities by combining two widely used gamification mechanics, competition and cooperation. Results from three laboratory experiments and one field experiment show that win/lose decisions weaken the benefits of gamification and, in the case of losing a competition, have negative impacts on customer experience and engagement. They also demonstrate that customers' levels of prior engagement with the community moderate the negative impacts of losing a competition. Supported by equity theory, this research questions the effectiveness of gamification mechanics, identifies their limits, and provides guidelines on how to properly implement them.

Academics and practitioners acknowledge the relevance to integrate customers in the development of new products or services in terms of innovation and relationship management (Bogers et al. 2010; Nishikawa et al. 2013; Roser et al. 2013). The emergence of online platforms, communities, and social networks has been widely recognized to facilitate the interactions and resource exchanges among actors (Sawhney et al. 2005; Zwass 2010). However, despite their important role, these technologies are not sufficient for an effective customers’ engagement. Engagement is considered as a key predictor of successful co-creation experiences (Brodie et al. 2011; Zheng et al. 2011). Despite the growing body of research on co-creation (Galvagno and Dalli 2014), little is known about mechanisms, practices, or tools that could be used to create and boost individuals’ engagement toward these co-creation platforms (Djelassi and Decoopman 2013; Ostrom et al. 2015). To address this gap, our research, based on complementary qualitative and quantitative methods, attempts to identify multiple users’ profiles and offers a more fine-grained understanding of the role of gamification in engaging these users on co-creation platforms. To this end, we identified multiple profiles and assessed their behavioral and emotional engagement on the platform.