Does gamification effect customer brand engagement and co-creation during pandemic? A moderated-mediation analysis

While insight into gamification, customer brand engagement (CBE), and co-creation is rapidly increasing, little remains known about the relationship of these, and related concepts, as thus investigated in this study. Rooted in service-dominant logic and protection motivation theory-informed perspectives, this study develops and tests a model which investigates the effects of destination brand-based gamification on CBE, co-creation, loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (WOM) during pandemic. This study also investigates the potentially moderating role of protection motivation and psychological fear in affecting these associations. To explore these issues, we collected tourist-based survey data using PLS-SEM analysis. Our findings suggest that gamification positively impacts CBE, co-creation, loyalty and WOM. Second, our findings confirm the CBE’s differing effects on co-creation, loyalty and WOM. Third, results revealed the gamification’s indirect effect on co-creation, loyalty and WOM, as mediated through CBE. Further, findings verify a reciprocal relationship between loyalty and CBE, which has not been reported in existing studies. Finally, our analyses revealed a significant-positive moderating role of protection motivation and significant-negative moderating effect of psychological fear in proposed associations. This study offers key theoretical and practical implications to marketing literature with valuable suggestions for destination brand managers during pandemic.