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Gamification is the application of game elements in a non-game context (Deterding et al., 2011) and has previously been used to increase engagement and motivation in various contexts (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017; Hamari et al., 2014; Koivisto & Hamari, 2019; Looyestyn et al., 2017). Several gamification design frameworks have been produced both from scholars, e.g., Motivational Design Lens (Deterding, 2015) GaDeP (Klemke et al., 2020) and The RECIPE for Meaningful Gamification (Nicholson, 2015) and from practitioners, e.g. Octalysis (Chou, 2016), Gamification by Design (Zichermann & Cunningham, 2011). For a comprehensive lists of gamification frameworks see Mora et al. (2017) and Morschheuser et al. (2017). Even though existing frameworks and methods provide a starting point for the gamification design process they are often theoretical and conceptual or based on practitioners’ know-how or scholar disciplinary knowledge.
In the present study we explore a practical gamification design-case, applied in a collaboration between a traditional manufacturing organization and a start-up firm. When functioning well, collaboration between corporations and start-ups have the potential to offer a powerful acceleration for innovation. However, despite its potential, dissimilarities between traditional corporations and start-ups can inhibit effective collaborations (Kohler, 2016). This inquiry explores how a merge between practitioners’ know-how and scholar disciplinary knowledge in a real gamification implementation case. The focus of the study is twofold:
- 1)
To give insight of the potential opportunities and problems that emerge in a collaboration between a traditional organization and a startup firm implementing a gamification API into an existing information system (IS).
- 2)
To provide an authentic industry example of a gamification studios design processes when gamifying an existing IS artefact serving as an innovation enabler for a novel technology in the traditional manufacturing industry
The study employs a multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995) standpoint, following the application of a design science research process (Peffers et al., 2007) in order to answer the following research question: What transpires in the collaboration between a traditional manufacturing company and a novel gamification startup while implementing a gamification API in an already existing IS?