Gamification approaches to the early stage of innovation

Despite the growing adoption and acceptance of gamification approaches among firms, the relationship between gamification and the early stage of innovation is confusing and deserves further attention in order to produce added-value exploratory knowledge. This paper puts forward the idea that gamification approaches can support the early stage of innovation by making a cross-comparison of published case studies of firms where gamification was used to address innovation challenges, e.g. use of gamification elements and tools that support the generation of ideas for developing new product concepts or entering new markets. In order to understand and clarify the relationship between gamification and the early stage of innovation, the paper proposes an analytical framework that provides a consistent and organized picture of the use of gamification approaches for innovation purposes. Research findings provide a conceptualization of gamification in the context of the early stage of innovation and demonstrate significant outcomes of these types of approaches with regard to the various forms of engagement, team spirit, consensus building, knowledge transfer, creative thinking and productivity.