The use of games in education represents a promising tool to motivate and engage students in their learning process. Most of previous research on the topic has focused to develop theoretical frameworks or to conduct experiments as a means to analyse learning outcomes such as knowledge retention, problem-solving skills gains or attitudes toward game-based learning. Nevertheless, little research has focused on providing a comprehensive literature review, which will help researchers to better understand how this stream of research has evolved over the last years. In this study, we use a bibliometric, social network and text mining analysis in order to provide useful up-to-date information to picture the state of the art about current research and evolution of the topic. Analysis on a sample of 139 articles published in top journals over the last 5 years (2010-2014) allowed identifying relevant authors and institutions, key constructs and themes involved, and trends of knowledge development. Main findings suggest an increasing academic interest on the topic over the last 5 years and a wide variety of constructs that were clustered in four main themes that we named: (i) effectiveness, (ii) acceptance, (iii) engagement and (iv) social interactions. Future research lines are also addressed.

Purpose – With the rapid expansion of social networking sites, researchers and practitioners are challenged to understand drivers of customer loyalty in fan pages. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main drivers of Facebook fan page loyalty in order to promote the creation of affective links and long-term relationships with users. Design/methodology/approach – The impact of trust, fan page content dependency, attitude and consumer beliefs on loyalty to fan pages was tested through structural equation modelling techniques. The sample consisted of 691 Spanish Facebook users. Findings – Data analysis shows that attitude appears as a key variable in increasing loyalty to fan pages. The empirical study also found a significant positive influence of perceived usefulness, attitude, trust and dependency on loyalty in fan pages, and an indirect influence of perceived ease of use mediated by perceived usefulness and attitude. Practical implications – This research enables managers to know what aspects to highlight in their communication strategies to increase fan page use and positive word-of-mouth. Research findings show managers that Facebook fan page content should provide valuable information, be fun and foster user interactions in order to improve user attitude and loyalty. Practical recommendations to reinforce consumer trust on Facebook fan pages are also provided. Originality/value – There are still too few studies that analyse the effects of trust and fan page dependency on fan page users’ loyalty. This work aims to combine the influence of dependency on fan pages, trust, attitude and Technology Acceptance Model beliefs in order to construct an improved model for fan page loyalty formation.

Product placement in video games is gaining momentum as a means to target audiences in an indirect and engaging way. This study uses a 2 (high repetition vs low repetition) × 2 (high brand familiarity vs low brand familiarity) factorial design to test the effects of repetition and brand familiarity on consumers’ memory for brands placed in video games. Results suggest that consumers recall familiar brands placed in the video game better than unfamiliar ones. Familiar brands also performed better in a brand recognition measure than unfamiliar brands. As no interaction effect of repetition was found, both familiar and unfamiliar brands will benefit equally of the effect of repetition. Managerial implications, limitations, and future research are also addressed.

No abstract