An exploratory study to analyze the impact of using Growth Hacking on e-participation environments
Abstract
The dissemination of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has fostered e-participation platforms, yet low citizen engagement remains a challenge, limiting their effectiveness. To address this, we applied the P-EPV framework to identify Growth Hacking strategies for increasing citizen engagement. Thus, we conducted a case study investigating the impact of these strategies in SoPa (an e-participation tool). We observed that applying Growth Hacking strategies through the P-EPV framework significantly boosted user participation, demonstrating its potential to enhance citizen engagement. These findings offer insights to improve other initiatives that face similar challenges.References
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Schulze, C., Schöler, L., and Skiera, B. (2014). Not all fun and games: Viral marketing for utilitarian products. Journal of Marketing, 78(1):1–19.
Selvidge, N. (2018). Prioritize a/b test ideas with ice.
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Vicente, M. R. and Novo, A. (2014). An empirical analysis of e-participation. the role of social networks and e-government over citizens’ online engagement. Government Information Quarterly, 31:379–387.
Wang, R., Wu, J., Yang, J., and Xu, C. K. (2024). The Role of Issue Characteristics in Shaping E-Participation: A Survey Experiment Approach. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, dg.o ’24, pages 659–668, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Yi, F., Yao, L., Sun, Y., and Cai, Y. (2023). E-commerce participation, digital finance and farmers’ income. China Agricultural Economic Review, 15(4):833–852. Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Zajonc, R. B. and Markus, H. (1982). Affective and Cognitive Factors in Preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(2):123–131.
Armour, B. (2018). 5 methods for increasing app engagement and user retention.
Azevedo, E. M., Alex, D., Montiel Olea, J., Rao, J. M., and Weyl, E. G. (2019). A/b testing with fat tails. Available at SSRN 3171224.
Bargoni, A., Jabeen, F., Santoro, G., and Ferraris, A. (2023). Growth hacking and international dynamic marketing capabilities: a conceptual framework and research propositions. International Marketing Review, 41(1):74–106. Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Bismo, A., Putra, S., and Melysa (2019). Application of Digital Marketing (social media and email marketing) and its Impact on Customer Engagement in Purchase Intention: a case study at PT. Soltius Indonesia. In 2019 International Conference on Information Management and Technology (ICIMTech), volume 1, pages 109–114.
Boscarioli, C., Araujo, R. M. d., Maciel, R. S., Neto, V. V. G., Oquendo, F., Nakagawa, E. Y., Berrnardini, F. C., Viterbo, J., Vianna, D., Martins, C. B., Medeiros, A. P., Meza, E., Moratori, P., Bastos, C. A. M., Araujo, R. M. d., Siqueira, S., Bittencourt, I., Isotani, S., Nunes, B. P., Maciel, C., Cappelli, C., Nunes, V., Ralha, C. G., Silva, L. S. P., Sampaio, S. C. B., Moreira, R. T., Vasconcelos, A. M. L., Maciel, R. S. P., David, J. M. N., Claro, D., Braga, R., Paula, A. C. M. d., Carneiro, G. d. F., Cafezeiro, I., Costa, L. C. d., Salgado, L., Rocha, M. d. C., Monteiro, R. S., Pereira, R., Baranauskas, M. C. C., Pereira, V. C., Lopes, F. S., Silva, L. A. d., Breternitz, V. J., and Slaviero, C. (2017). I GranDSI-BR: Grand Research Challenges in Information Systems in Brazil 2016-2026. Sociedade Brasileira de Computação. Publication Title: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação.
Caetano, B., Paula, M., and Souza, J. D. (2020). SoPa: A Social Media for a Participatory Society. IEEE Access, 8:70627–70639. Conference Name: IEEE Access.
Coelho, T. R., Pozzebon, M., and Cunha, M. A. (2022). Citizens influencing public policy-making: Resourcing as source of relational power in e-participation platforms. Information Systems Journal, 32(2):344–376. eprint: [link].
Conway, T. and Hemphill, T. (2019). Growth hacking as an approach to producing growth amongst UK technology start-ups: an evaluation. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship, 21(2):163–179. Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Digital Adoption Team (2023). What is User Onboarding? Definition and Examples.
Ellis, S. and Brown, M. (2018). Hacking Growth. A Estratégia de Marketing Inovadora das Empresas de Crescimento Mais Rápido. Alta Books, 1 edition.
Fernandes, L. S., Mota, F. B. S., Caetano, B. P., Silva, G. G., Paula, M. M. V., and Souza, J. M. (2018). Citizen participation: A diagnostic from the perspective of available tools. In 2018 13th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI), page 6.
Kaur, P., Dhir, A., Rajala, R., and Dwivedi, Y. (2018). Why people use online social media brand communities: A consumption value theory perspective. 42(2):205–221. Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Kemell, K.-K., Feshchenko, P., Himmanen, J., Hossain, A., Jameel, F., Puca, R. L., Vitikainen, T., Kultanen, J., Risku, J., Impiö, J., Sorvisto, A., and Abrahamsson, P. (2019). Software startup education: gamifying growth hacking. In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT International Workshop on Software-Intensive Business: Startups, Platforms, and Ecosystems, IWSiB 2019, pages 25–30, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Kohavi, R., Henne, R. M., and Sommerfield, D. (2007). Practical guide to controlled experiments on the web: Listen to your customers not to the hippo. In Proceedings of the 13th ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, KDD ’07, pages 959–967, New York, NY, USA. ACM.
Krasnova, H., Veltri, N. F., Eling, N., and Buxmann, P. (2017). Why men and women continue to use social networking sites: The role of gender differences. 26(4):261–284.
Kulkarni, K. K., Kalro, A. D., Sharma, D., and Sharma, P. (2020). A typology of viral ad sharers using sentiment analysis. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53:101739.
Macca, L. S., Camilleri, M. A., Troise, C., Giovando, G., and Bresciani, S. (2024). Bridging the Gap: Unraveling Knowledge Dynamics in Growth Hacking. In Proceedings IFKAD 2024 Translating Knowledge into Innovation Dynamics, Madrid, Spain.
Martins, T. C. M. (2015). Crowdsourcing de ideias para inovações no setor público. Master’s thesis, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, Brasil.
Martins, T. C. M. and Zambalde, A. L. (2021). REFLEXÕES SOBRE CROWDSOURCING NO SETOR PÚBLICO. Revista PRETEXTO, pages 23–35.
Mota, F., Paula, M., and Drummond, I. (2020). Identificação de perfis em ferramentas de participação eletrônica: um estudo da ferramenta SoPa. In Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas de Informação (SBSI), pages 40–43. SBC. ISSN: 0000-0000.
MyMetric (2018). Calculadora de teste a/b.
Neil Patel (2018). Calculadora de testes a/b.
Oliveira, C. and Garcia, A. C. (2019). Citizens’ electronic participation: a systematic review of their challenges and how to overcome them. International Journal of Web Based Communities, 15(2):123–150. Publisher: Inderscience Publishers.
Piatek, A. (2016). Growth hacking model for b2b saas startups: Liquid case. Master’s thesis, NOVA – School of Business and Economics (NSBE), Lisboa, Portugal.
Sabani, A., Deng, H., and Thai, V. (2018). A Conceptual Framework for the Adoption of E-Government in Indonesia. ACIS 2018 Proceedings.
Schulze, C., Schöler, L., and Skiera, B. (2014). Not all fun and games: Viral marketing for utilitarian products. Journal of Marketing, 78(1):1–19.
Selvidge, N. (2018). Prioritize a/b test ideas with ice.
Siqueira, J. G. and de Paula, M. M. V. (2018). Ipead a/b test execution framework. In XIV Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas de Informação (SBSI), page 8, Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil.
Vicente, M. R. and Novo, A. (2014). An empirical analysis of e-participation. the role of social networks and e-government over citizens’ online engagement. Government Information Quarterly, 31:379–387.
Wang, R., Wu, J., Yang, J., and Xu, C. K. (2024). The Role of Issue Characteristics in Shaping E-Participation: A Survey Experiment Approach. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, dg.o ’24, pages 659–668, New York, NY, USA. Association for Computing Machinery.
Yi, F., Yao, L., Sun, Y., and Cai, Y. (2023). E-commerce participation, digital finance and farmers’ income. China Agricultural Economic Review, 15(4):833–852. Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited.
Zajonc, R. B. and Markus, H. (1982). Affective and Cognitive Factors in Preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(2):123–131.
Published
2025-07-20
How to Cite
RESEK, Caroline L.; ALVES, Gustavo E. R. G.; CAETANO, Bárbara P.; PAULA, Melise M. V..
An exploratory study to analyze the impact of using Growth Hacking on e-participation environments. In: LATIN AMERICAN SYMPOSIUM ON DIGITAL GOVERNMENT (LASDIGOV), 12. , 2025, Maceió/AL.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 37-48.
ISSN 2763-8723.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/lasdigov.2025.7753.
