Page 42 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.81, # 1, 2024, pp. 40-50

• RQ 1: What are the definitions of gamification?
• RQ 2: What does the concept of gamification cover?

For each of the research questions, a separate literature review was conducted and
systematically examined. In this direction, scans were made in accordance with
historical developments. In the process of analysis and evaluation, the main goal was
to present a comprehensive study on the definition and concept of gamification. For
this reason, the study is exploratory research and will make important contributions
to the creation of the theoretical foundations of subsequent studies.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS
Definitions of Gamification
Practitioners of the concept of gamification and authors of academic literature
(Herbig, 1991; McAfee and McMillan, 1996; Vargo and Lusch, 2008; Lusch et al.,
2007; Terlutter and Capella, 2013) have provided various definitions of gamification.

The term gamification has been around in the academic literature since at least van
Benthem's (2002) discussion of logic games. van Benthem (2002: 2) says: “In
principle, any logical task can be 'gamified'”. Van Benthem used this term to mean
the presentation or transformation of a non-game task into a game, and this term is
still a definition that the common man can understand today (Landers, 2014).

Bunchball (2010) defined gamification as “the process of integrating game features
into business websites to engage and bond with customers”.

Deterding et al. (2011a, 2011b) made a definition of voting based on the studies of
practitioners, academics, and others to date. Deterding et al (2011a) defined
gamification as “the use of game features in non-game contexts”. Gamification,
which has rapidly emerged as one of the most popular persuasive technologies widely
used to promote positive change since Deterding et al.'s (2011) definition, affects user
behavior by incorporating game-like elements into non-game contexts. The most
frequently achieved effect with gamification is an improvement in the user's
engagement and intrinsic motivation towards the development of certain actions that
are often considered boring or uninteresting (Trinidad, Ruiz, and Calderon, 2021).

According to Zichermann and Cunningham (2011), gamification is “the application
of game principles and game design elements (i.e., game mechanics and dynamics) in
non-game contexts to encourage problem solving and encourage desired behaviors”.
Werbach, Hunter, and Dixon (2012) defined gamification as “the use of game
elements and game design techniques in non-game contexts”.

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