Social interactions in online games have led gamers to form lasting social relationships. This has caused a tremendous increase in gift-giving on online gaming platforms. This study aims to identify factors that impact gamers’ gifting behaviour in online games. A conceptual framework is developed by incorporating the Social Identity Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Theory of Planned Behaviour. This study adopts a quantitative research methodology that collects data from 404 Clash of Clans gamers. The findings show that gaming team identification and compliance with gaming team norms are positively associated with gaming team commitment. Gifting reciprocity, pleasure, relationship support, and convenience were positively associated with the perceived worth of gift-giving while perceived cost was negatively associated. Gaming team commitment, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and perceived worth were positively associated with online game gifting intention. It was also found that gifting behaviour is an immediate consequence of gifting intention in online games. This paper contributes to the under-researched literature on gifting behaviour in online games. It provides novel insights into gamers’ gifting behaviour that can allow game developers to enhance revenue by increasing the sale of virtual in-game items.

在线游戏中的社交互动已导致游戏玩家形成持久的社交关系。这已导致在线游戏平台上的送礼大幅增加。本研究旨在确定影响游戏玩家在网络游戏中的馈赠行为的因素。通过整合社会认同理论，社会交流理论和计划行为理论来开发概念框架。这项研究采用了定量研究方法，该方法从404部落冲突中收集了数据。研究结果表明，游戏团队的识别和对游戏团队规范的遵守与游戏团队的承诺呈正相关。礼物互惠，愉悦，人际关系支持和便利与礼物馈赠的感知价值呈正相关，而感知成本却呈负相关。游戏团队的承诺，态度，主观规范，感知的行为控制和感知的价值与网络游戏馈赠意图呈正相关。还发现，礼物行为是在线游戏中礼物意图的直接结果。本文为有关网络游戏中礼物行为的未得到充分研究的文献做出了贡献。它提供了有关玩家礼物行为的新颖见解，可以使游戏开发人员通过增加虚拟游戏内物品的销售来增加收入。