iServe:a serious game for servitization

Servitization concerns the process of manufacturers shifting from a focus on producing and selling tangible goods to service-based business models. Factors that drive adoption of servitization are financial, strategic (competitive advantage) and marketing. However, uptake is slow and active efforts are being made to transfer knowledge about servitization to the manufacturing sector. This paper presents early results from the first test of a serious computer game which has the goal of educating managers about what advanced services are and how they fit in supply chains. Results suggest the role-play scenario tested is appropriate for an audience of largely non-expert gamers, and that the approach has the potential to instruct users about the role of services in the supply chain.

From the outside in:consumer anti-choice and policy implications in the mobile gaming market

Significant growth in mobile media consumption has prompted a call to better understand the socio-cultural and policy dimensions of consumer choices. Contrary to industry and technology led analysis, this study argues that to guide consumer choice and innovation via regulatory policies requires an understanding of both ex-ante as well as in ex-post consumption conditions. This study examines mobile phone gaming to uncover how consumer anti-choice shapes decision-making as a framework for closely interrogating the ways in which policy concerns impact on consumers' behavior. Through eleven focus groups (n=62), the study empirically identifies voluntary, intentional, and positive consumer anti-choice behaviors all of which impact policy initiatives when consumers, both gamers and non-gamers, self-regulate their behaviors. Findings point to four types of policy implication: regulating the self-regulated, understanding anti-choice, boundary-setting and including the self-excluded. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Smartphone chronic gaming consumption and positive coping practice

Purpose - Chronic consumption practice has been greatly accelerated by mobile, interactive and smartphone gaming technology devices. This study explores how chronic consumption of smartphone gaming produces positive coping practice. Design/methodology/approach - Underpinned by cognitive framing theory, empirical insights from eleven focus groups (n=62) reveal how smartphone gaming enhances positive coping amongst gamers and non-gamers. Findings - The findings reveal how the chronic consumption of games allows technology to act with privileged agency that resolves tensions between individuals and collectives. Consumption narratives of smartphone games, even when play is limited, lead to the identification of three cognitive frames through which positive coping processes operate: (a) the market generated frame, (b) the social being frame, and (c) the citizen frame. Research limitations/implications – This paper adds to previous research by providing an understanding of positive coping practice in the smartphone chronic gaming consumption. Originality/value - In smartphone chronic gaming consumption, cognitive frames enable positive coping by fostering appraisal capacities in which individuals confront, hegemony, culture and alterity-morality concerns.