New publication in 'Internet Research'

How can gameful systems support corporate sustainability?

In order to answer this question, Junior-Professor Samanthi Dijkstra-Silva, Benedikt Morschheuser, Harald Von Korflesch and Jeanine Kirchner-Krath combined forces from the #informationsystems, #sustainabilitymanagement and #humancomputerinteraction fields that they call their homes and conducted a throughout analysis of the current literature, which has been published in Internet Research.

Key findings:

1. The dimensions of sustainability targeted with gameful systems are still rather narrow. Most studies focus on either employee health & well-being (SDG 3) or energy conservation (SDG 7), even though there would definitely be potential to explore how gameful IS could support responsible consumption & production (SDG 12), water conservation (SDG 6), sustainable travel and transport (SDG 11), climate action (SDG 13), or equality and inclusion (SDGs 5 and 10) - or a combination of multiple dimensions of sustainability

2. Regarding design, the autors have definitely moved beyond PBL - it is enlightening to see how many creative gameful designs are explored to foster sustainability in organizations. They see great examples of storytelling and narrative design or social design elements that extend beyond classical achievement-based elements

3. In terms of outcomes and effects, they see an emphasis on evaluating gameful systems based on their impact on hedonic (positive experience) and normative (knowledge and awareness) goal frames, while their impact on rational decision-making, i.e., the gain goal frame, has been less examined. While they see several promising effects on individual behavior, it remains to be studied further how these can translate into measurable corporate sustainability performance. But: there is initial evidence for beneficial corporate sustainability effects, ranging from electricity and heat conversation over sustainability innovation to a reduction of transport emissions.

Based on their findings, they propose a conceptual framework for gameful systems to support corporate sustainability, derive seven agenda points for future research in this field, and illustrate three approaches for practice on how gameful systems can be used for sustainability in organizations: the cost-benefit approach, the hedonic approach and the normative approach.

Link to the open-access full text: Emeral Insight