TO COOPERATE OR TO COMPETE? – USING GAMIFIED INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO FOSTER INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR IN EMPLOYEE-DRIVEN INNOVATION

Employee-driven innovation aims at unveiling and utilising employees’ creativity and expertise in creating new products, services, processes, and business models. Likewise, gamification was found to facilitate employee-driven innovation. However, how different gamification dynamics—particularly competition and cooperation—influence the innovative behaviour of employees still needs to be explored. To address this gap, we studied the effect of cooperative and competitive gamification designs on low-code development platforms. Our study identified different influences of game elements for cooperative and competitive dynamics, either supporting or even hindering the innovative behaviour of employees in app development. This research enriches the ongoing discourse surrounding user behaviours and the consequences of implementing gamification into information systems. Moreover, the insights provide practitioners with a deeper understanding of the differential impact of gamification dynamics and help them anticipate the potential for employee-driven innovation initiatives.