Game‐Based Formats in Creativity and Innovation Management: Configurations, Practices and Directions

ABSTRACT This lead paper introduces a special issue, with seven papers included, that investigates how game‐based formats can enhance creativity and innovation funnels, with a focus on four cross‐cutting themes: (1) the purpose of the applied use of games and the epistemological reasoning behind organisational change concerns, (2) a deeper focus on specific interactions, interpersonal relations and participant power dynamics as part of the games, (3) the connection to organisational culture and transferability to practice and (4) an expansion of the applied context and diversity of game formats. The lead paper also presents three trajectories by examining how and why researchers and practitioners in the past decade chose to apply game‐based formats in creativity and innovation management. In the first trajectory, we focus on current definitions , suggesting a shift from an element‐centric to a configurational ontology. The second trajectory illustrates, through selected frameworks, the dimensions that are vital to how researchers and practitioners choose to apply game‐based formats, and we call for a higher degree of open‐ended game formats. The last trajectory traces recent movements and suggests three avenues for the directions of future research.