Incentives and control systems are one of the most important research areas for management accounting. Mobilising classic psychological theories, this thesis sheds light on the possibility and potential of gamification as an approach to designing incentives and control systems. On the one hand, this thesis raises the attention of management accounting scholars to further explore the motivational effects of gamification. On the other hand, it also sparks designers of gamification in organisations to consider their current use of gamification to incentivise their employees or users. In the first chapter, a netnographic study is conducted in an online on-demand delivery platform to explain how the gamified incentive system motivates delivery riders to perform and how the gamified incentive system helps create a sense of community among riders, as an incentive factor, to further motivate and retain riders on this platform. In the second chapter, in the same field setting, a survey study is conducted to examine the moderation effect of social comparison orientation and the mediation effect of occupational self-efficacy from the relative performance information in riders’ gamified leaderboards. In the third chapter, another netnographic study is conducted in an online learning platform to explain how the platform uses gamification to change users’ behaviour through the internalisation of external gamified elements and how these internalisations further complement the intrinsic motivation to satisfy the users’ three basic psychological needs autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
- Gamification
- Incentive System
- Control
- Management Accounting
Incentive systems and control in a gamified era
Wang, G. (Author). 5 Dec 2023
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)