An exploratory study of the Swedish gaming industry's global value chain : With a focus on the regional game hub in Skövde

Abstract: The Swedish game industry has seen tremendous growth and a global impact in the market. Despite the successes there is a lack of research on the matter. By exploring the global value chains of game companies in Skövde (a game industry hub in Sweden) the thesis intends to generate understanding of and map out value chain paths along with identifying critical factors for future growth and maintenance of the leading position in the market. A comprehensive overview of the industry cluster case of Skövde has been achieved through the use of semi-structured interviews with six local game companies. As a result of the study confirmation and extension of the thesis grand theory, the GVC literature, was achieved. A number of critical factors for practical utilization were identified, specifically the relationship with the publisher, the developer’s passion for the project & creative freedom together with contacts in the industry.  A number of scientific contributions have been made through our research. By exploring the GVC in a previously under-researched context we have made a contribution by confirming previous theory as well as laying a base for future research and an extension of the literature in the institutional context-section of the GVC literature. The critical factors findings have the potential of a direct impact on the practical management of the business side of the industry. Finally, as a result of the discovery of close connections with the Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA), Resource Dependency Theory (RDT) and Relational Exchange Theory (RET) theories we have laid the groundwork for future research in these areas as well.