Behavioural Change in Sustainable Accounting Education: A Gamification-Based Approach

Abstract

The integration of sustainability into accounting education is important for preparing future professionals to address global challenges, yet promoting enduring behavioural change in students and professionals remains elusive. This study develops a novel analytical framework to investigate how gamification, which is grounded in behavioural economics and network theory, can drive sustained adoption of sustainable practices. The model developed in this study quantifies student engagement through a utility function that includes intrinsic motivation, extrinsic incentives, social influence, effort and introduces a network-based system to simulate peer interactions. A reward system and fatigue function are also included to capture diminishing returns and temporal declines in engagement. Numerical experiments across small world, scale free and random networks reveal distinct engagement dynamics. Small world topologies optimise engagement diffusion due to efficient peer influence, while scale free networks risk polarisation if hubs (influential learners) disengage. Threshold effects, modelled via sigmoid activation, demonstrate that minor interventions (e.g., lowering effort barriers) can trigger nonlinear behavioural shifts. Fatigue-induced declines highlight the necessity of periodic reinforcements. Key practical insights for accounting educators include structuring classrooms as small world networks, incentivising early adopters, front loading rewards and rotating gamification elements to combat fatigue. The study bridges gaps in domain-specific gamification research and provides a validated, computational approach to sustainability education.