The last decade has seen the production of a considerable library of off the shelf serious games for use within organisational contexts that address challenges such as business acumen, strategy, change, leadership, and decision making among others. Most of these games are designed as flexible frameworks allowing them to be used across different industries and organisational sectors. On account of this flexibility in combination with other factors, the decision on which business game to use is still a challenging process particularly for users with little or no prior experience with using a game tool or the knowledge on how to evaluate one. Consequently, this decision is often deferred by the organisation to the business game company who then take on the role of cultural intermediaries, mediating between the sites of production and the sites of use of game based tools.

The aim of this study was an investigation into the decision-making processes that business game companies undertake when selecting or developing a game based solution to address an organisation’s challenges. Investigations were made into where business game companies perceive the learning happening, what concerns there were with using business games designed as a framework to be used across different organisational sectors, and how these concerns influenced the choices between off the shelf and bespoke games. Empirical case studies of five business game companies were conducted using semi-structured interviews with key personnel within the companies. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed through coding and theme identification.

The study identified five key considerations that business game companies bear in mind when identifying the right game tool to use: learning competencies, learning situations, transfer of learning, simulation fidelity and organisational resources. These results indicate that rather than evaluating the game tool itself as an artefact, business game companies focus on the game play situations – before, during and after game play.
Based on these investigations, the study further hypothesized on what design or application considerations would have to be taken into account if business games were to be part of organisational development within a Kenyan context. To explore this hypothesis, this study constructed a narrative of technologically enabled subjectivities that enable the emergence of shared tastes which mobilise the transfer of business games into a different cultural context.

By tapping into the experiences of business game companies, the study enhances our understanding of factors to consider when evaluating the fit of a game based tool. The findings of this thesis could be used to help designers in game development, game facilitators and users to implement game tools more effectively. By exploring how technological access has underpinned the sharing of cultural tastes, this research also provides a basis for the exploration of cross cultural game compatibility.