How gamified fitness services create value: a means-end chains analysis

Purpose This study aims to examine how users of gamified fitness apps transform service attributes into personally meaningful values, and how these value pathways differ between male and female participants in this sample. Integrating means-end chain (MEC) theory with goal congruity theory (GCT), it reconceptualizes gamification as a process of service enhancement rather than a set of game elements. Design/methodology/approach Laddering interviews were conducted with 60 Nike Run Club users in Taiwan, evenly divided by gender. Verbatim transcripts were content analyzed, quantified through a structural implication matrix and visualized as hierarchical value maps for the full sample and for each gender group. Findings The analysis identified 12 app attributes, 14 user consequences and nine target values. Recording running mileage was the central attribute, linking quantified feedback to exercise understanding, self-regulation and the values of accomplishment, enjoyment, self-fulfillment and security. Within this sample, male participants more often interpreted goal attainment, health data and social sharing as agentic goal affordances supporting performance confirmation and social comparison. Female participants in this sample also pursued agentic goals related to mastery and self-improvement, while more often connecting social and guidance features with communal support, mutual monitoring and security. These exploratory patterns suggest that the same service affordance could generate different consequence-value pathways. Originality/value By integrating MECs with GCT, this study explains customer value formation in gamified fitness services through perceived goal affordances rather than treating gender as a deterministic explanation. It also extends MEC analysis from product evaluation to value cocreation within a digital service ecosystem.