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This conceptual paper seeks to consider the impact of performance measurement and reporting based around performance indicators and targets within the public sector and to identify that the response to indicators and targets is often gaming which happens at organisational level. It then goes on to present a definition and typology of organisational gaming.

The paper draws from a range of documents both government and academic to identify both the process of, and the types of, organisational gaming.

The paper finds that organisational gaming occurs at both different levels (low and high) and extent (internal and external). It builds on this by presenting a framework (2 × 2 matrix) which presents types of organisational gaming which range in their degree of impact and consequence.

The concepts within this paper focus around public services on which the framework is built. This may – but it is doubtful – have limitations when considering the ideas within private sector organisations. Another limitation could be levelled at the 2 × 2 typology in that it may be difficult to place a gaming phenomenon into one “box” alone.

The value in the paper and the framework is that a distinction between measurement and reporting is drawn together with identification of a different gaming phenomenon. This, the paper argues, is important to understand, if organisations are to avoid some of the more “dangerous” or high impact consequences of gaming.

Through comparative analysis with other social science disciplines, gaps are identified in the performance gaming literature of public administration as it compares to other social science disciplines in order to understand directions for future research in this space.

This study involves a systematic review of the performance gaming literature, focusing on important drivers of performance gaming. Using Google Scholar, Web of Science, and ProQuest Central, the systematic review covers years ranging from 1990 through 2019 and revealed empirical studies that were deemed relevant based on whether an article was (1) an empirical study and (2) performance gaming or cheating behavior was the outcome variable. Out of the 81 articles surmised from the search, 51 were regarded as relevant by meeting these criteria.

The main finding is that public administration has primarily focused on drivers that are embedded in the performance system. The other social sciences (psychology and economics, in particular) focus mainly on individual factors, mostly cognitive in nature. Public administration has also looked at organizational drivers, though this is a burgeoning area. Scholars in public administration may benefit from the other social sciences by determining how individual drivers work within the context of public organizations and how these shape organizational behavior.

Per my knowledge, the paper is the first to systematically compare the performance gaming literature of public administration to other social science disciplines. The paper provides a direction for this burgeoning area of research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interrelationships between internet connectedness, online gaming, internet addiction symptoms, and academic performance decrement among the internet-dependent young people in China.

A paper-based survey was conducted among the young clients in one of the earliest and largest internet addiction clinics in China. A total of 594 in-patients (mean age=17.76 y) voluntarily participated in this study.

By adopting the concept of internet connectedness, this study explored the internet use patterns among the young internet addicts, for example, internet café patrons and those who use internet with more goals or higher degree of internet adhesiveness had more internet addiction symptoms. Online gaming was found to play a significant role in the development of internet addiction. As expected, the level of internet addiction is significantly linked to academic performance decrement. Consistent with previous studies, males showed higher degree of internet connectedness and online game usage than females. Noticeably, the moderation effect of online game playing and the mediating effect of internet addiction were also tested.

This research is focussed on the internet-dependent group, thus the generalizability of the results need to be interpreted with caution.

This study provides insight for parents, educators, health professionals, and policy makers regarding treatment and intervention for internet addiction among young people in China.

Since very little research has been done focussing on diagnosed internet-dependent group, this paper scores as a pioneering study of its kind in China.

This paper investigates how individuals' decision-making approach and perceptions of a game's cognitive realism affect the performance of virtual businesses in a web-based simulation game.

Survey data are collected from 274 business simulation game users and is analysed using the fsQCA technique.

The study identifies three alternative pathways to high and low performance in a business simulation game. Results indicate that a flexible decision-making approach exists in all high performance pathway solutions. Where a game is perceived to be realistic, a more focused decision-making approach is associated with high performance. However, where perceived cognitive realism is absent, a less focused experimental decision-making approach is employed, which increases the chances to achieve low performance. Finally, perceived cognitive realism and an experimental decision-making approach are found to be mutually exclusive for achieving high performance.

Whilst the learning benefits of web-based simulation games are widely acknowledged, the complex interplay amongst factors affecting performance in games is under-researched. Limited research exists on how perceptions of a game's cognitive realism interact with user decision-making approaches to affect performance.

Performance management involves budgeting, performance evaluation, and incentive compensation. This study describes a model that encompasses these three elements of performance management. To illustrate the model, survey data were examined using path analysis. The empirical evidence supports the model, and suggests several intervening variables that mediate the direct and indirect effects of budgeting, performance evaluation, and incentives on gaming behaviors and individual performance.

There is a growing need for measures assessing technological changes in systemic contexts as business ecosystems replace standalone products. In these ecosystem contexts, organizations are required to manage their innovation processes in increasingly networked and complex environments. In this paper, we introduce the technology and ecosystem clockspeed measures that can be used to assess the temporal nature of technological changes in a business ecosystem. We analyze systemic changes in the personal computer (PC) ecosystem, explicitly focusing on subindustries central to the delivery of PC gaming value to the end user. Our results show that the time-based intensity of technological competition in intertwined subindustries of a business ecosystem may follow various trajectories during the evolution of the ecosystem. Hence, the technology and ecosystem clockspeed measures are able to pinpoint alternating dynamics in technological changes among the subindustries in the business ecosystem. We subsequently discuss organizational considerations and theoretical implications of the proposed measures.

Purpose – The aim of the present chapter is to analyse episodes of dispute and conflict in co-located computer gaming. The main purpose is to extend prior research on dispute-interaction to a computer mediated setting.

Methodology – Naturally occurring multiplayer computer gaming was video recorded in Internet cafés (28 hours). A single case was selected that involved a series of escalating disputes over the course of 45 minutes of gaming. The social interaction involved – of two 16-year-old boys playing World of Warcraft – was analysed using conversation analytical procedures.

Findings – The sequential analyses show how the two players engaged in disputes at the points where one or both of the players’ avatars had been killed. The players held each other accountable for their in-game performance, and avatar death was a central event in which gaming competence was contested, often in outright confrontations. Such disputes, where each player attempted to present the other as inferior, were used for negotiating player identities in what Goffman (1967) has called character contests. In gaming, players thus risk losing the game as well as their social standings. Disputes were also linked to the variable stakes of the game: with more at stake, players were more likely to escalate conflicts to the point of even quitting the game altogether.

Originality – The chapter shows how disputes are central components in adolescents’ computer gaming, and how they both structure the players’ intersubjective understanding of the game, and how they play a role in local identity work.

This study undertakes a comprehensive exploration of the relationships between psychological ownership (PO) in playful consumption and its substantial impact on consumer happiness (CH). Specifically, this study aims to investigate the moderating effects of personality and game performance on the association between PO and CH.

Subsequently, this study proceeds to evaluate consumer happiness in the context of playful consumption experiences through two distinct studies, one quantitative and the other experimental. For Study 1, a randomized sample of 453 respondents from Pakistan is utilized, and data is analyzed using SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) techniques. In Study 2, this study employed an EEG emotive insight device, offering valuable insights into the factors associated with psychological ownership. This experimental approach allows exploring the neuro-marketing perspective of players engaging in playful consumption activities.

The research findings demonstrated multiple positive associations with psychological ownership (PO). Perceived control, competitive resistance, emotions, customer participation, personality and performance all exhibited significant positive correlations with PO. Furthermore, the study highlighted that game performance has the capacity to enhance feelings of happiness among participants.

This study offers innovative insights into the mechanisms that underpin consumer happiness and serves as a reliable guide for policymakers, applied psychologists, consumers and marketers who play a role in shaping the future in the domain of happiness and well-being through playful consumption experiences.

This study offers new insights into the processes that drive consumer happiness and provides a vigorous guide for policymakers, applied psychologists, consumers and marketers who shape the futures in the field of happiness and well-being through playful consumption experience.

This study aims to examine how differences in the casino advantage (i.e. price) of otherwise identical slot machines affect their revenue production, when the price is hidden from the players. The study aims to identify the ability of players to recognize differences in the concealed prices of paired machines, over time. Both items are paramount to slot revenue optimization.

Using 274 daily observations, paired-samples t-tests examined whether live performance metrics were affected by the differences in the casino advantage (namely, par) of the paired games. Time-series regression analyses were conducted to understand whether players shifted their play away from the high-par games, over time.

The results indicated that increased casino advantages produced increased revenue, with no evidence of diminished play on the high-par games.

The results contradicted the inveterate wisdom of the industry by demonstrating that players are not hypersensitive to increased prices/pars, and that such increases can actually lead to increased revenue, despite egregious par gaps.

Added valuable results to a nascent research stream aimed at understanding the effects of obfuscated price/pars. Expanded the gaming literature by increasing the differences in the prices/pars of paired game titles over an increased sample period. Both conditions increased the chances of observing changes in revenue performance, and play migration to the low-par game. Both manipulations have been previously cited as meaningful extensions of the literature.

The global market for cloud gaming is growing rapidly. How gamers evaluate the service quality of this emerging form of cloud service has become a critical issue for both researchers and practitioners. Building on the literature on service quality and software as a service, this study develops and validates a gamer-centric measurement instrument for cloud gaming service quality.

A three-step measurement instrument development process, including item generation, scale development and instrument testing, was adopted to conceptualize and operationalize cloud gaming service quality.

Cloud gaming service quality consists of two second-order constructs of support service quality and technical service quality with seven first-order dimensions, namely rapport, responsiveness, reliability, compatibility, ubiquity, smoothness and comprehensiveness. The instrument exhibits desirable psychometric properties.

Practitioners can use this new measurement instrument to evaluate gamers' perceptions toward their service and to identify areas for improvement.

This study contributes to the service quality literature by utilizing qualitative and quantitative approaches to develop and validate a new measurement instrument of service quality in the context of cloud gaming and by identifying new dimensions (compatibility, ubiquity, smoothness and comprehensiveness) specific to it.