The Gamification, which is the use of game elements in non-game context, it's one of the trend of the last years. This is due to the growing interest in user engagement in the online world and it's strictly related to the user retention in the long term. The problems which gamification aims to solve are often found in two-sided market, specifically concerning the loyalty of the user side and the issue of getting and maintaining on board the costumers. The literature of these two fields of study has been extensively studied over the years by scholars but gamification and two-sided market were never explored in parallel with the aim to solve the problems of two-sided platforms through the use of game elements. Specifically the gamification mechanisms can be used to solve the negative cross-side and same-side network externalities. This research pursue exactly this objective through the in depth exploration of a longitudinal case study: the application named Friendz is the perfect example that joins the game elements, the social networks and the online platforms. It's a transactional two-sided market which links the business side to the user side thanks to the exchange of UGC. The case study has been built on information and insight obtained through direct collaboration, interviews and secondary sources. The findings gathered helped with the identification of an enhanced model for two-sided platform, a transactional market which behave as an non-transactional, furthermore the results were useful to propose a new strategy, based on gamification technique, to solve the chicken and egg paradox based. At last it was found that by applying these mechanisms to the initial value proposition for the user it's possible to enhance it and to change its meaning, this is possible thanks to the shift of the initial extrinsic motivations into intrinsic and social one. This transformation in the value proposition for one side trigger an alteration also for the value on the second side. This paper provides a significant contribution to the user engagement and chicken and egg paradox literature. Furthermore, it brings some development in the scientific research of crowdsourcing, thanks to the interaction with the game mechanisms. At last strategy management process benefits from the paper's findings, too.
La gamification, ossia l'uso di elementi del gioco in contesti diversi da quello puramente ludico, è uno dei trend in ascesa degli ultimi anni. Questa popolarità è dovuta al crescente interesse per la partecipazione attiva degli utenti nel mondo online ed è strettamente legata al mantenimento nel lungo periodo di questi ultimi. I problemi che la gamification ha l'obiettivo di risolvere, sono riscontrati spesso nel mondo dei two-sided market, in particolare per quanto riguarda la parte di fidelizzazione del lato utente e di come portarlo e mantenerlo coinvolto nelle attività proposte dall'applicazione. La letteratura di questi due filoni è stata ampiamente sviluppata negli ultimi anni, ma non sono mai stati studiati parallelamente con l'obiettivo di risolvere i problemi tipici legati alle piattaforme attraverso le tecniche della gamification, in particolare i meccanismi tipici della gamification possono servire a superare gli aspetti negativi legati alle esternalità di rete dirette e indirette. Questa ricerca si propone proprio di raggiungere questo scopo attraverso l'approfondimento di un caso studio: l'applicazione Friendz è l'esempio perfetto che unisce gli elementi ludici, i social network e le piattaforme online. Si tratta di un two-sided market di tipo transazionale che unisce il lato azienda e il lato utente attraverso lo scambio di UGC. Il caso di studio è stato sviluppato sulla base delle informazioni e della conoscenza ricavata attraverso interviste, diretta collaborazione e fonti secondarie. I risultati ottenuti portano allo sviluppo di un nuovo modello di two-sided market transazionale che si comporta come non-transazionale, oltre alla proposta di una nuova strategia di coinvolgimento inziale dell'utente basata sulle tecniche di gamification. Infine è stato riscontrato che applicando questi meccanismi alla value proposition iniziale lato consumatore finale è possibile che questa evolva nel tempo cambiando il suo significato, passando quindi da un coinvolgimento basato su ragioni estrinseche a uno basato su ragioni intrinseche, sociali e ludiche, questo porta a un cambiamento anche nella value proposition lato business. La ricerca fornisce un contributo significativo alla letteratura inerente la gestione del lato utente nelle two-sided platform e la risoluzione del chicken and egg parodox. Inoltre, porta dei contributi alla ricerca scientifica nel mondo crowdsourcing, sempre grazie all'interazione con la sfera della gamification. Infine anche il processo di gestione strategica trae beneficio dalle conclusioni raggiunte.
The role of gamification in two-sided platforms. An exploratory analysis
ZANARDI, SILVIA
2017/2018
Abstract
The Gamification, which is the use of game elements in non-game context, it's one of the trend of the last years. This is due to the growing interest in user engagement in the online world and it's strictly related to the user retention in the long term. The problems which gamification aims to solve are often found in two-sided market, specifically concerning the loyalty of the user side and the issue of getting and maintaining on board the costumers. The literature of these two fields of study has been extensively studied over the years by scholars but gamification and two-sided market were never explored in parallel with the aim to solve the problems of two-sided platforms through the use of game elements. Specifically the gamification mechanisms can be used to solve the negative cross-side and same-side network externalities. This research pursue exactly this objective through the in depth exploration of a longitudinal case study: the application named Friendz is the perfect example that joins the game elements, the social networks and the online platforms. It's a transactional two-sided market which links the business side to the user side thanks to the exchange of UGC. The case study has been built on information and insight obtained through direct collaboration, interviews and secondary sources. The findings gathered helped with the identification of an enhanced model for two-sided platform, a transactional market which behave as an non-transactional, furthermore the results were useful to propose a new strategy, based on gamification technique, to solve the chicken and egg paradox based. At last it was found that by applying these mechanisms to the initial value proposition for the user it's possible to enhance it and to change its meaning, this is possible thanks to the shift of the initial extrinsic motivations into intrinsic and social one. This transformation in the value proposition for one side trigger an alteration also for the value on the second side. This paper provides a significant contribution to the user engagement and chicken and egg paradox literature. Furthermore, it brings some development in the scientific research of crowdsourcing, thanks to the interaction with the game mechanisms. At last strategy management process benefits from the paper's findings, too.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/139449