Exploring the Catalysts and Components of Gamification in Enterprise: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This comprehensive review scrutinizes the body of literature on enterprise gamification from 2015 to 2023, drawing from databases such as Elsevier, IEEE, and Google Scholar. A corpus of 37 articles, bearing a close thematic affinity, were examined with an aim to discern the primary impetuses for gamification initiatives and to delineate the most prevalent elements across a broad spectrum of disciplines. It is underscored that gamification emerges as a multidisciplinary concept with far-reaching influence on an array of business operations, spanning marketing, customer engagement, management, health promotion, and software engineering, among others. The analysis discerns six primary categories of drivers prompting the adoption of gamification initiatives: enhancement of customer experience, bolstering employee engagement, process improvement, ensuring security and compliance, fostering organizational awareness and motivation, and promoting well-being. Employee engagement was recurrently cited, with objectives such as cultivating learning, augmenting engagement, and enhancing performance being predominantly highlighted. The findings also reveal an excess of 40 distinct gamification elements, with feedback mechanisms, points, badges, leaderboards, and progress bars being the most frequently employed. The review underlines the necessity of defining clear objectives and identifying pertinent stakeholders prior to the implementation of gamification strategies. Notwithstanding certain limitations, including the exclusion of particular types of publications and the potential oversight of relevant studies, this review furnishes insightful perspectives on the application of gamification in enterprises. Future research is encouraged to delve into the effects of less commonly utilized gamification elements.