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Gamification has been studied in many areas, i.e. marketing, education, training, and psychology. There has been an increased interest in the topic of gamification among scholars in the past several years. The purpose of this paper is therefore to use citation network analysis and explore changes in scholarly interest in the topic of gamification. As a result, four study hypotheses were developed: H1a: the “other” category publications (books, proceedings, etc.) will have a significantly larger frequency when compared with “journal” publications; H1b: the trend line of the frequency of publications will most closely fit the S-curve of Adoption in the adoption of innovations or the spread of new ideas as postulated by Rogers (2003); H2a: there will be a negative correlation between graph density and the number of vertices (publications); and H2b: there will be a positive correlation between average geodesic distance (AVGD) and the number of vertices (publications).

Data were collected from three searches for all published works that contained the word “gamification” in the titles of publication (the unit of analysis) from 2010 to 2013. The sampling was conducted via Google Scholar, amazon.com, and the academic library databases, i.e. EBSCO Search, JStor Scholarly Journal Archive, PsychArticles, and WorldCat. Data were analyzed using frequency counts and citation network. NodeXL is a highly structured workbook that includes multiple worksheets and computational functions necessary to store, represent, and analyze a network.

All four hypotheses were supported; the “other” category accounted for a significantly larger number of publications with the word “gamification” in the title; the trend line of the frequency of publications will most closely fit the S-curve of Adoption in the adoption of innovations or the spread of new ideas as postulated by Rogers (2003); there was a negative correlation between graph density and the number of vertices (publications); and there was a positive correlation between AVGD and the number of vertices (publications).

It is highly improbable that a “pure” or “random” sample of publications could be collected because it is highly probable that there exists no known, i.e. identifiable and verifiable “true” population of works that include gamification in the title.

The study findings have three major implications. The first takes in scholarly communication and the development of scientific knowledge. The findings imply that scholarly communication follows patterns similar to the adoption of innovation. The second implication deals with the topic known as “gamification.” The study findings imply that scholars believe gamification is worthy of serious study as the network of scholars studying gamification is increasing. The third implication of our study relates to the methods used to study scholarly communication. The study findings imply that network analysis can be used to understand how a new concept can be vetted by the scientific community.

The citation network analysis of this study provided tangible evidence of how new concepts are vetted, i.e. adopted. Citation network studies thus offer promise for a deeper understanding of scholarly communication and the adoption of new research topics and fields of inquiry. In addition, the findings indicate that “gamification” is a potentially fruitful topic for scholars to continue to explore.

The purpose of the study is to explore the extent to which the diffusion of concepts related to information systems and management approximates the rate and the cumulative frequency distribution patterns assumed to reflect the diffusion of innovations.

The diffusion of those concepts was measured via citation analysis of 4,014 publications (journal articles, books, and dissertations) for the period 1973‐2004.

Two key findings emerged from the study. First, the cumulative frequency distribution approximates the S‐curve of adoption. Second, the rate of adoption is exponential and corroborates an epidemiological model of the rate of adoption recently reported in the literature.

Further research is needed to identify and examine topics or concepts that have run their course and subsequently offer an excellent opportunity to perform ex‐post‐facto studies on the life cycle of innovative concepts or topics. From these studies will be baseline data and easily identifiable “actors” in the diffusion process (authors, editors, reviewers, and dissertation committees) that will provide the impetus for continued, progressively complex research models.

The practical implications of a deeper understanding of the diffusion of innovations are immense. It will enhance understanding of how to better promote research and development and technology transfer. It will enhance understanding of how better to market the fruits of those endeavors.

This paper's findings bring to the scholarly community in the digital era the importance of understanding how new concepts and theories are brought to light and evaluated.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of staffing levels (one or two staff) on the amount of assistance provided to residents in one group home, and associated levels of resident engagement in activities prior to and following the implementation of active support.

Data on staff assistance and resident engagement were gathered by direct observation across six pre‐test and post‐test 80‐minute sessions, using palmtop computers. Percentage of all non‐overlapping data, an index of effect size, was used to analyse these data.

There was no clear benefit from additional staffing prior to active support training, in terms of staff assistance or resident engagement in activity. However, at post‐test, having two staff yielded increased staff assistance, but with limited evidence of increased resident engagement, despite more continuous staff assistance.

This is the first active support study to examine the impact of staffing levels on resident engagement and staff assistance. Implications for service management and research are presented.

This research aims to determine to what extent corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions developed by bank entities in Spain improve the vulnerable customers' emotions and quality perception of the banking service. Consequently, this increases the quality of their relationship regarding satisfaction, trust and engagement.

Data from 734 vulnerable banking customers were analyzed through structural equations modeling (EQS 6.2) to test the relationships of the proposed variables.

Vulnerable customers' emotional disposition exerts a strong influence on their perceived service quality. The antecedent effect is concentrated primarily on the CSR towards the client, with a residual secondary weight on the CSR towards society. These positive service emotions are determinants of the outcome quality perceived by vulnerable customers, directly in terms of higher satisfaction and trust and indirectly through engagement.

This research contributes to understanding how financial service providers should adapt to the specific characteristics and needs of vulnerable clients by adopting a strategy of approach, personalization and humanization of the service that seems to move away from the actions implemented by the banking industry in recent years.

This study has adopted a theoretical and empirical perspective on the impact of CSR on service emotions and outcome quality of vulnerable banking customers. Moreover, banks can adopt a dual conception of CSR: a macro and external scope toward society and a micro and internal scope toward customers.

The importance of an error management culture (EMC) that integrates error prevention with error management after errors occur has been highlighted in the existing literature. However, few empirical studies currently support the relationship between EMC and errors, while the factors that affect EMC remain underexplored. Drawing on the conceptualisation of organisational cultures, the purpose of this paper is to verify the contribution of authentic leadership in steering EMC, thereby leading to reduced errors.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional survey study. The sample included 280 nurses.

Results of a full structural equation model supported the hypothesised model, showing that authentic leadership is positively associated with EMC, which in turn is negatively associated with the frequency of errors.

These results provide initial evidence for the role of authentic leadership in enhancing EMC and consequently, fostering error reduction in the workplace. The tested model suggests that the adoption of an authentic style can promote policies and practices to proactively manage errors, paving the way to error reduction in the workplace.

This study was one of the first to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership, error culture and errors. Further, it contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating both the importance of cultural orientation in protecting the organisation from error occurrence and the key role of authentic leaders in creating an environment for EMC development, thus permitting the organisation to learn from errors and reduce their negative consequences.

Errors are increasingly recognized as beneficial to the learning process and are more frequently integrated into training curriculums. Despite this growing interest, the work carried out so far offers little evidence highlighting the psychological qualities implicit in learning from error. By focussing on the role of specific trainee’s attributes [i.e. learning goal orientation (LGO) motivation to learn and metacognition], this study aims to better understand the reasons why some trainees benefit more (than others) from being confronted with errors during training.

A total of 142 trainees took part in this study by participating in a training on interviewing techniques that also exposed them to various committable errors, and by completing questionnaires at two different times (i.e. before and after training).

Results of bootstrap regression analysis highlights three main findings: LGO is positively linked to learning from errors; a significant portion of the link between LGO and learning from error is explained by motivation to learn and metacognition; and these effects are presented in the form of a double-mediated model which suggests two different explanatory pathways (i.e. motivational and cognitive).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to offer insight on the psychological attributes influencing learning from errors and to bring forward the role of two underlying mechanism that are linked to this specific type of learning. It also invites researchers and practitioners to reflect on the best ways to make use of errors in training and promote the value of personal attributes on trainees’ learning experience.

The purpose of this paper is to report the outcome of a city‐wide survey of teenagers’ views on their health, and compare this with the outcomes of a science‐oriented health intervention called LifeLab, a hospital‐based classroom aimed at developing teenagers’ attitudes towards their health and that of their future children.

A questionnaire survey of 597 14‐year olds across the city of Southampton was conducted to gauge their views and behaviour in relation to their own health. The views of 37 students who took part in innovative, hospital‐based, hands‐on LifeLab activities were compared with those of their peers six months after the intervention to analyse long‐term impacts of the experience. Interviews were carried out with ten LifeLab students to gain further insights.

The intervention created a wider appreciation among students that food they eat now could affect their long‐term health and the health of their future children. Students became significantly more interested in studying science beyond compulsory schooling, and in considering science and healthcare career options.

Although results were statistically significant, the intervention sample was quite small, and further data collection is ongoing. The city‐wide student response rate of 29 per cent was fairly low.

This study has shown that a carefully structured hospital‐based classroom visit, and associated science lessons can have a marked effect on student engagement with health‐related issues, and an impact on their consideration of their career choices.

The hospital‐based classroom is an innovative approach to improving teenagers’ knowledge and attitudes towards their health. The paper's findings should be of interest to a range of educational stakeholders including teachers, local education authorities and local politicians concerned with health education matters.

This paper presents a set of basic components which constitutes the experimental setting intended for the evaluation of interactive information retrieval (IIR) systems, the aim of which is to facilitate evaluation of IIR systems in a way which is as close as possible to realistic IR processes. The experimental setting consists of three components: (1) the involvement of potential users as test persons; (2) the application of dynamic and individual information needs; and (3) the use of multidimensional and dynamic relevance judgements. Hidden under the information need component is the essential central sub‐component, the simulated work task situation, the tool that triggers the (simulated) dynamic information needs. This paper also reports on the empirical findings of the metaevaluation of the application of this sub‐component, the purpose of which is to discover whether the application of simulated work task situations to future evaluation of IIR systems can be recommended. Investigations are carried out to determine whether any search behavioural differences exist between test persons‘ treatment of their own real information needs versus simulated information needs. The hypothesis is that if no difference exists one can correctly substitute real information needs with simulated information needs through the application of simulated work task situations. The empirical results of the meta‐evaluation provide positive evidence for the application of simulated work task situations to the evaluation of IIR systems. The results also indicate that tailoring work task situations to the group of test persons is important in motivating them. Furthermore, the results of the evaluation show that different versions of semantic openness of the simulated situations make no difference to the test persons’ search treatment.

This study aims to examine the micromechanisms of how knowledge culture fosters human capital development.

An empirical model was developed by using the structural equation modeling method based on a sample of 321 Polish knowledge workers employed in different industries.

This study provides direct empirical evidence that tacit knowledge sharing supports human capital, whereas tacit knowledge hiding does not, and this hiding is considered a waste of knowledge. If tacit knowledge does not circulate within an organization, it is a severe waste of an organization. The findings indicate that shame from making mistakes might impede the sharing of knowledge gained from making those mistakes, and in such cases, the knowledge remains hidden.

Leaders aiming to ensure human capital growth should implement an authentic learning culture composed of a learning climate and mistakes acceptance components that enable open discussion about mistakes on each organizational level.

The knowledge culture is found to be an essential element of building human capital but, at the same time, not sufficient without a learning culture, and its mistakes acceptance component. A permanent organizational learning mode that supports a continuous organizational shared mental model reframing is an antidote to tacit knowledge hiding.

Drawing on Resource-based Theory, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effect of International Strategic Brand Management (SBM) on export performance within the Business-to-Business (B2B) context. To be able to purposely assess the relationship, this paper also sets out to discover what antecedent international resources, (financial resources) and international capabilities (market information, branding and marketing planning) contribute to the ability of B2B exporters to effectively manage their brands abroad.

A mixed method firm-level approach was employed. First, a qualitative study of 34 in-depth interviews explored the focal inter-relationships and constructs identified within the literature. A survey of 208 successful UK exporters was then conducted and the results were analysed using structured equation modelling.

The results confirm that certain marketing capabilities (branding and marketing planning) are advantageous antecedents to the employment of effective SBM in foreign markets which, in turn, leads to increased financial and market performance internationally.

This paper outlines practical brand management considerations managers need to account for to achieve effective exporting. Practitioners are advised to prioritise the development of robust international branding and marketing planning capabilities which can enable them to exploit their limited financial resources for optimal benefits. Furthermore, by developing these capabilities, firms can focus on the essence of their brand and communicate their brand image through the effective strategic management of their brand to business customers, evoking positive brand associations, enhanced perceived brand value and the achievement of increased export performance.

This paper is the first to focus on international SBM as the deterministic factor leading to improved B2B export performance. An innovative framework is offered which positions the pivotal role of International SBM as the central focus. The construct for international branding capabilities is extended specifically for use in the B2B domain.