CUARTO CARGO

This research aimed to: (a) identify effective approaches to enterprise gamification grounded in both rigorous research and industry experience; and (b) identify potential tools and frameworks that may assist in advancing the research domain and the practice of enterprise gamification. To this purpose a design-science approach was adopted due to its focus on innovative problem-solving in enterprise information systems, and its emphasis on the production of practical research artefacts as a contribution to knowledge and theory.

The core research question addressed was: What are the key success factors in creating stakeholder value with enterprise gamification? This question was comprised of four sub-questions, and a discussion on their respective research contributions are presented below:

1. What are the key design principles and decisions that need to be considered for effective enterprise gamification design?

The investigation in Research Module 1 uncovered that as a design discipline, enterprise gamification can be informed by the research and experience of related domains in design, information systems, and HCI. Building on this foundational knowledge, an enterprise gamification design framework and methodology was developed, along with four unique sets of design cards, templates and experiential exercises as an aid to the design process. A further contribution of this research is the introduction of ethics as a key design frame for overcoming the potential value destruction elements of gamification design and practices. The work in this research module has earned the following publications:

(a) The design framework was published as a long paper in the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds in September 2014.

(b) The work on ethics was published as a position paper at CHI 2015, Seoul, at the Gamification Research Network workshop on Researching Gamification: Strategies, Opportunities, Challenges, Ethics.

(c) Work on design cards was published as a short paper at OZCHI 2015: Playful card-based tools for gamification design.

2. What are the key technical features of current enterprise gamification constructs in the enterprise? What are the technologies, purpose, audience and game design patterns that are being used?

From the study in Research Module 2 of over 300 gamification artefacts created by organisations over the last three years, an enterprise gamification taxonomy was developed which included five core elements: primary purpose, target audience, technology strategy, core gameplay and key game mechanics, with over 52 sub-elements. This taxonomy has enabled the identification of the conceptual boundary conditions and possibility space which shape the design and development of enterprise gamification projects. This taxonomy also provides a framework for classifying and designing enterprise gamification initiatives. It was the first extensive work of its kind in the enterprise gamification domain and was published as a long paper at DiGRA 2015 Luneburg, Germany.

3. What has been the management experience to date of organisations that have experimented with gamification? What do they see as the key enablers, barriers and capabilities required for successful

implementations?

An online survey of 25 early adopters of enterprise gamification was undertaken in Research Module 3, which provided a unique insight into the first-hand experiences of enterprise gamification. The combined gamified projects covered in this survey equated to 11.4 million users (a combination of internal staff and external customers or stakeholders) that have been affected by these gamified enterprise applications. This represents a significant sample and an original piece of work in the enterprise gamification domain.

The outcomes of this survey were used to expand on the taxonomy developed in the preceding research module by providing granular level detail on what shapes organisational decision-making on enterprise gamification projects. Key implementation insights were uncovered across the three areas of technology, design and management. These insights can be used as a compendium to the conceptual design framework created in Research Module 1. They can provide guidance on the development of gamified applications, that aligns with information systems theories on implementation success. The outcomes of this research module also provided the data and insight for Research Module 4, which was used to develop a conceptual capability framework.

4. What are the implications for the design, implementation and management of gamified applications in the enterprise?

Building on the insights drawn from the experience survey on enablers, barriers and best practice, a conceptual capability framework was developed to address this research question in Research Module 4. The capability framework provides an outline of the range of core

organisational competencies required for the successful design and implementation of a gamification project. The three core areas of the capability framework are management, technology and design, and the three enablers are integration, participation and iteration. The outcomes of this research revealed a complex array of factors that are often involved in developing and implementing a successful enterprise gamification project, which is consistent with IS and IT research. This presents an opportunity for further research into aligning enterprise gamification with the IS research domain.

These research questions were investigated in this study via four detailed research modules using different epistemological approaches within the overall research framework of design-science in information systems. This research has produced outcomes in the form of three key interconnected and interdisciplinary artefacts that provide new knowledge on how gamification can be used by organisations to create value for their stakeholders.

Gamification tools to address boundary value problems

An enterprise gamification project poses a boundary value problem (Drucker 1964) which is an organisational problem to be solved that must also satisfy certain boundary conditions – which are organisational, market and industry constraints, before it can create value for stakeholders.

Enterprise gamification boundary conditions are the technological, design and management conditions that both shape and constrain a gamification project. This challenge can be illustrated by using the four research artefacts in this dissertation as a combined approach:

• A manifestation of the boundary constraints can be seen in the taxonomy that was mapped in Research Module 2. The five key elements identified – primary purpose, target audience, technology

strategy, core gameplay and key mechanics – and their associated sub- elements form the boundary constraints and the boundary conditions. These boundaries can also be perceived as framing the possibility space13 which contains the design decisions are made by an organisation.

• Within this possibility space, Research Module 3 presented the enablers, barriers and best practices that affect the success of enterprise gamification projects, and in Research Module 4, the capability framework articulates the organisational constructs required to enable the organisation to reach its value creation goals.

• All these research modules then loop back to the beginning in Research Module 1, where the conceptual design framework can be used as a canvas that is bounded by the possibility space. This design framework could be considered the ‘magic circle’ of enterprise gamification design, and the taxonomic and capability elements within it are the palette of strategies at the organisation’s disposal.

The apparent limited innovation in gamefulness, design and technology found in this dissertation suggests there are conscious or subconscious limitations, or boundary conditions, that organisations have imposed on their gamification projects. However, in a broader strategic and operational context, this phenomenon can also be observed in situations where organisations are undergoing systemic change (Kotter 1996; Kotter and Cohen 2012), which has also been identified as the major barrier to adopting innovation (Chesbrough 2005; Christensen 1997). Such boundary

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In game design, a ‘possibility space’ is the safe space where all the action takes place within the boundaries of the game rules and elements used to engage people in play (Salen and Zimmerman 2004; Sicart 2008; Wright, interviewed in Seabrook 2006), which is also akin to Huizinga’s (1955) ‘magic circle’ and Castronova’s (2005) concept of a shield or membrane protecting the fantasy world from the outside world.

conditions are generally formed by organisation culture, legacy systems and systemic constraints (Cohen 2013; Drucker 1964), as well as limitations in organisational capabilities (Teece et al. 1997). Thus, this phenomenon is not unique to gamification, but to any strategic innovation project that an organisation is looking to implement.

With the right tools, enterprise gamification has the opportunity to make these constraints more visible and open up the possibility space for creating greater value for stakeholders.