In previous research on in-app purchasing, one of the revenue sources for mobile games focuses on users' unilateral relationships, such as their achievement, loyalty, and perception. However, little has been discussed about the commercial impact of the bilateral relationship. We extend discussions by examining an unprecedented issue, that is, the role of the bilateral relationships between users and mobile game companies in increasing in-app purchasing intention. We borrow from the business literature and psychology to hypothesize that when mobile game users co-create value with a mobile game company, their psychological ownership of the mobile game increases, which in turn increases their in-app purchasing intentions. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a carefully designed study by recruiting eighty-six Chinese game users. Half of the participants were exposed to an imaginary mobile game whose interface allowed them to co-create value with the mobile game company and the other half were exposed to an identical mobile game whose interface did not. We recruited participants from the two online platforms in which Chinese mobile game players gather-Weibo and WeChat Moment. Using SPSS 26, we conducted an independent samples test to test the effect of value co-creation and employed Hayes Model 4 to test whether psychological ownership mediated the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention. We found that (1) when participants were allowed to co-create value, their in-app purchasing intentions increased, and (2) the relationship between value co-creation and in-app purchasing intention was mediated by psychological ownership. Our findings provide fresh insights for mobile game designers and marketers.
Keywords: in-app purchasing; mobile game; psychological ownership; value co-creation.