Gamification as a tool for costumers' creativity to foster open innovation entrepreneurship: an Italian case study.

Purpose - Recently, Gamification is a significant trend among practitioners and scholars. Defined as "the use of game design elements in non-game contexts"(Deterding et al., 2011a), gamification is useful to engage/fun users in solving problems and increase their contributions, 1 drawing on the strengths of co-creation, leading to a wider understanding/adoption of applied co-creation practices. Stemming from these premises, we aim at discussing gamification as an application to foster creativity, understand how such a perspective may become a core driver in supporting existing brands and helping them in involving customers throughout the (co) design process of new products/services. Analyzing MulinoBianco digital strategy, our purpose is twofold: how gamification changes behaviors, develops skills and drives innovation in various industries(Hamari et al., 2014b); how gamification would shape the future of knowledge creation(Hamari, 2013). Design/methodology/approach - Our article dwells on the theoretical analysis of gamification and its applicability on the engagement of consumers, throughout the design process, broadly definable as 'any act of collective creativity'(Sanders, Stappers, 2008), by using elements of game thinking and mechanics in a non-game contexts, integrating consumers into advertising and brand-building, which would enable even a boost to companies' outcomes. Practical implications - What emerges from our paper is that gamification applied to a food company digital strategy brings it into direct contact with consumers and their creativity, also creating new opportunities for business. It is quite interesting to stress how gamification, intertwining with interaction design, pulls consumers into the brand and engages them in exhilarating/addictive ways of developing non-game products and services "having more engaged customers, to crowdsourcing innovation or improving employee performance"(Burke, 2012).