Gamification in Public Service Provisioning: Investigation of Research Needs

Abstract

The increasing use of disruptive technologies in the public sector pushes toward the next stage of the digital government evolution: Government 3.0. This new stage is characterised by the focus on data-driven and evidence-based decision and policy making, where disruptive technologies are deployed. Along this, the engagement of citizens and other stakeholders both in data provision and co-creation continues to be crucial. One way to increase citizen participation is through the introduction of gamification elements into the digital government services. In this paper, the authors review literature and projects on gamification as a tool for improving citizen participation rates in Government 3.0. Based on this, avenues for further research are outlined in the area, taking into consideration a) the knowledge collected from recent EU-funded projects involving gamification and b) the opinions of experts in the domain, which were collected along interactive workshops. Finally, five research needs are identified and outlined for gamification in digital government.