PLAYFUL INNOVATIONS Emerging Concepts in the Context of Multiplayer Videogames Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors rerum politicarum der Fakultät III – Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Wirtschaftsinformatik und Wirtschaftsrecht der Universität Siegen vorgelegt von Bastian Kordyaka Erstgutachter: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dr. Björn Niehaves Zweitgutachter: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Tim Klucken Dekan: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marc Hassenzahl Datum der Disputation: 24. 11. 2020 Acknowledgements The publications included in this thesis would have not been possible without the exceptional aid of my mentors, fellow researchers, and colleagues whose collaborations have made this thesis a success. Here, I enumerate some of them. First and foremost, I am grateful to my PhD supervisor, Bjoern Niehaves, who provided me an atmosphere greatly conductive to research, while closely guiding me through this process of academic knowledge generation within the domains of Information Systems. This thesis is the result of his continuous encouragement in dealing with major issues, unbending will to explore new grounds, trust in his employees, and the degree of freedom he accorded. His guidance and mentorship over the last four years has been invaluable and has prepared me well for my academic career, as well as my professional development. I also want to express my gratitude to three people who substantially paved the way of this thesis in my academic journey at the FernUniversität in Hagen. I would like to express my warmest gratitude toward Agostino Mazziotta for encouraging me to pursue my interest in academic research at an earlier point of my academic career and boosting my scientific self-efficacy. I highly enjoyed the conversations we had about the added value of research and am thankful for all the inspiring conversations we had. Similarly, I am grateful to my former colleague Michael Serejenkov, who significantly increased the practical value of scientific thinking in lasting discussions, and Friedhelm Kulman, who always supported independent scientific thinking and gave me the freedom to implement related ideas. During my time here in Siegen, the support of my colleagues has been tremendously helpful as well. Specifically, I want to mention Marius Müller (who brought the topic of multiplayer video games to our chair), Katharina Jahn (who spent innumerable hours discussing and publishing ideas with me), Oliver Heger (who was responsible for the first accepted research article of mine), Michael Klesel (who introduced me into the world of Information Systems) as well as Sidney Hribersek (who has supported numerous paper projects of mine). Furthermore, I acknowledge and thank the rest of my co-authors Hans Christian Klein, Bjoern Kruse, Tobias Scholz, and Samuli Leehto, for their support and their contributions. I Finally, I feel especially indebted to my family. Their unconditional support gave me indescribable strength that I will remain eternally grateful for. In particular, I want to thank my two stepbrothers Tim and Felix, who introduced me to the exciting world of multiplayer video games and offered me the knowledge necessary to understand the relevance of this playful disruption. A special thanks goes to my parents. They gave me a solid foundation of excellent education and continuously encouraged me to pursue my goals. My last dedication goes to the memory of my beloved mother who always believed in me and encouraged me to be curious trying to better understand the world and made this journey possible. Siegen, December 2020 Bastian Kordyaka II Table of Contents Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................... I TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................... X LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ........................................................................................... XI PART A: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.1 THE OCCURRENCE OF PLAYFUL ARTIFACTS ................................................................................................. 2 1.2 RESEARCH BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 RESEARCH DESIGN ......................................................................................................................................... 10 1.5 THESIS STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................................................ 11 PART B. RESEARCH ARTICLES .................................................................................................................. 16 2 TRACK 1: CONCEPTUALIZING THE VIDEO GAME PLAYER..................................................... 17 2.1 PAPER 1: APPROACHING THE COMPARATIVE SELF .................................................................................. 17 2.1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 2.1.2 Related Work ................................................................................................................................................... 19 2.1.3 Methodological Approach ......................................................................................................................... 20 2.1.4 Outlook ............................................................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 PAPER 2: MEASURING THE COMPARATIVE SELF ...................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 24 2.2.2 Related Work ................................................................................................................................................... 25 2.2.3 Methodological Approach ......................................................................................................................... 30 2.2.4 Results ................................................................................................................................................................. 32 2.2.5 Discussion .......................................................................................................................................................... 37 2.2.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................... 41 3 TRACK 2: THE MANIFESTATION OF TOXIC BEHAVIOR .......................................................... 42 3.1 PAPER 3: APPROACHING A THEORY OF TOXIC BEHAVIOR ...................................................................... 42 3.1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 43 3.1.2 Related Work ................................................................................................................................................... 45 3.1.3 Outlook ............................................................................................................................................................... 53 III Table of Contents 3.2 PAPER 4: SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF TOXIC BEHAVIOR ............................................ 54 3.2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 55 3.2.2 Related Work ................................................................................................................................................... 56 3.2.3 Research Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 58 3.2.4 Results ................................................................................................................................................................. 59 3.2.5 Discussion .......................................................................................................................................................... 70 3.2.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................... 72 3.3 PAPER