Design thinking is spreading extremely rapidly among organizations in terms of interest and practices. Far from being linked to the "form" of products, design thinking is accepted as a formal creative problem-solving method with the intent to foster innovation. However, the spread of design thinking in practice has not been coupled with a similarly rapid and robust diffusion of its theoretical underpinnings. This paper aims to clarify the theoretical contribution of design thinking by identifying the practices that connote different interpretations of the paradigm. Moreover, we investigate the innovation challenges that the adoption of the design thinking paradigm aims to address. From an empirical perspective, through 47 case studies of consulting organizations that provide advisory services based on the design thinking paradigm in Italy, we identify four different interpretations of the paradigm characterized by different practices: creative problem solving, sprint execution, creative confidence, and innovation of meaning.

Despite the growing adoption and acceptance of gamification approaches among firms, the relationship between gamification and the early stage of innovation is confusing and deserves further attention in order to produce added‐value exploratory knowledge. This paper puts forward the idea that gamification approaches can support the early stage of innovation by making a cross‐comparison of published case studies of firms where gamification was used to address innovation challenges, e.g. use of gamification elements and tools that support the generation of ideas for developing new product concepts or entering new markets. In order to understand and clarify the relationship between gamification and the early stage of innovation, the paper proposes an analytical framework that provides a consistent and organized picture of the use of gamification approaches for innovation purposes. Research findings provide a conceptualization of gamification in the context of the early stage of innovation and demonstrate significant outcomes of these types of approaches with regard to the various forms of engagement, team spirit, consensus building, knowledge transfer, creative thinking and productivity.

This paper aims to explore the main implications of gamification approaches to collaborative innovation and particularly to co‐creation, i.e. the interaction and interchange of ideas between users, customers, suppliers and other actors in the development of new solutions. Despite the few approaches attempting to make co‐creation more ludic and accessible, researchers have yet to analyse the link between gamification and co‐creation in an extensive manner. In order to better understand this unexplored relationship, empirical case research studies have been conducted with multi‐actors participating in a real‐life co‐creation project through the deployment of a gamified method and tool (ideaChef®), as well as a combination of different instruments, involving speed meetings, workshops, debriefings and interviews. Besides advancing the body of knowledge on collaborative innovation practices and conceptualizing the relationship between gamification and co‐creation, this paper provides important implications for managers on how multiple actors can be engaged and coordinated in such practices through gamification. The paper's main contribution lies in the suggestion that engagement goes hand in hand with coordination, and that a combination of both will be the best strategy for co‐creating new solutions through gamification.

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