Receive help from friends: the buffer effect of social support on backfires of gamification

Purpose This study aims to investigate how perceived gamification affordances of achievement and interactivity shape users’ discontinued use intention in e-commerce contexts, with a particular focus on the sequential linkage between competence frustration and emotional fatigue, clarifying the progressive effects of these negative psychological states. It further examines the buffering role of social support. Design/methodology/approach Using the affordance perspective as the overarching framework and drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the authors develop a model that links perceived achievement and interactivity affordances to competence frustration and emotional fatigue, while specifying social support as a buffering resource. The authors empirically evaluate this model through partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis of online survey data collected from users of gamified e-commerce platforms. Findings The results reveal a sequential process in which competence frustration increases emotional fatigue, which in turn heightens users’ discontinued use intention. Social support significantly mitigates this progression by buffering the psychological states. In addition, the analysis shows that high perceived interactivity affordance amplifies the positive relationship between competence frustration and emotional fatigue, whereas low perceived interactivity affordance strengthens the negative association between perceived achievement affordance and discontinued use intention. Originality/value This research makes three key contributions. First, it advances understanding of the role of social support in gamified environments by establishing its buffering effect in mitigating the escalation of competence frustration into emotional fatigue, thereby extending the COR theory. Second, it empirically validates the sequential relationship between competence frustration and emotional fatigue, offering evidence of the progressive dynamics of negative psychological states in gamified contexts. Third, it enriches the dark side literature on e-commerce gamification by theorizing and testing the interaction between perceived interactivity affordance and perceived achievement affordance.