Game with a purpose: can IT create a new form of outsourcing and trigger organizational change?

Outsourcing is already a well-established practice that allows enterprises on one hand to reduce their costs and, on the other hand, to focus on their core business. Over the years, inter-organizational relationships with suppliers and customers became an important requirement, not only to protect businesses against the limits that outsourcing has, but also to co-create value and to be increasingly competitive in a market characterized by rapid and continuous change, and the resulting uncertainty. Games are increasingly developed and used by an ever-growing number of people. Games with a purpose allow people to do some activities, simple for them but difficult for computers, while they enjoy playing. These activities can be useful to businesses but expensive. In this paper is presented an explorative study that try to evaluate the potential use of games with a purpose as a new “cheap” form of outsourcing.