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Paulo Albuquerque - Marketing, INSEAD
CONDITIONAL PRODUCT USAGE: PAIRING EDUCATIONAL AND GAMIFIED CONTENT TO MOTIVATE LEARNING
Abstract: The usage or consumption of products and services is frequently not done in isolation and many daily activities are dependent on the previous completion of other activities. In this paper, we study conditional usage decisions in the context of an online educational platform for children, where the completion of math lessons is rewarded with access to gamified activities. To explain usage, we develop a multiple discrete-continuous time allocation model that accounts for the existence of a conditional activity, i.e., when the completion of one activity – a lesson – allows access to another activity – a game. In Monte Carlo simulations, we compare estimates of our model with a model that ignores the connection between activities to illustrate how ignoring the conditionality of activities can lead to wrong implications. Empirically, we estimate the model on data from two online field experiments involving more than 21,000 pairs of children and parents. In counterfactual simulations, we show that alternative customized product configurations, such as increased time of core math content and limiting access to gamified content, lead to significant changes in the overall usage of the platform.