Gamification - a new phenomenon in information systems research?

In recent years, gamification, the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, has found widespread adoption in online-communities and social media applications with the aim to enhance brand awareness and loyalty, innovation, and online user engagement. Information Systems (IS) research seems to have just started to pay attention to gamification as a phenomenon that is worth to be studied, although the interaction of technological and social systems is at the core of the discipline. By means of a thorough literature review, we investigate whether gamification is actually a new phenomenon in IS research or if it has already been researched previously, but simply using a terminology that is different from current gamification research in other disciplines. Through this study, we identify the overlap between IS and gamification research, identify specific research needs, and suggest avenues for future research on gamification from an IS perspective.<p></p>