TAKE Conference - Ver 1

Teaching Business Simulation Games:
Preliminary Current Practice Overview

Mirjana Peji Bach, Jovana Zoroja, Maja Fanik
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and
Business, Zagreb, Croatia
mpejic@efzg.hr; jzoroja@efzg.hr;
mmfasnik@gmail.com
Content
Goals of the research
Notion of business simulation games
Advantages and disadvantages
Usage of business simulation games in the management
education
Case study of the Course Simulation games for managers
Conslusion
Literature review
According to Bosilj Vuksic and Pejic-Bach (2012) business simulation games are
studying method used for practice of decision-making in safe environment,
where business students learn to apply their theoretical knowledge from various
fields (management, finance, marketing etc.) to simulated business situations in
order to gain an insight of business world before entering the job market.
Vos et al. (2010) defines business simulation games as widely used method that
simulates competitive environment where some business rivals make
important business decisions through a software application.
Avramenko (2012) focuses to the usage of business simulation games as an
educational method, in simulated conditions, that upgrades students theoretical
knowledge and makes them unique, challengeable and employable at the
labor market.
Pillay and James (2013) define business simulation games through the three
types of activity: role plays, gaming and computer simulations.
Advantages of business simulation
games
Advantages of business simulation games are various, such as
developing business strategy logic, evolving analytical
skills, getting a new educational method experience and
making failures, such as wrong decisions, but in virtual
business, so there are no negative side effects (Faria and
Dickinson, 1994).
The games can be played individually and it pursuits students
self-confidence because they can make important decision.
When making decisions, they wont pay for the mistakes
because of controlled virtual environment, where the faults can be
corrected (Vos, L., & Brennan, 2010).
Role of the games in education lies, also, in students
motivation and concentration-keeping because of dynamic
sequences of playing.
Disadvantages of business simulation
games
The main disadvantage may be simplifying the difficult
concepts, for example, players have an opportunity to solve
simple situations because of a lack of time and the decisions
they make can produce the results for a business immediately,
while in a real world everything is more complex (Gros,
2007).
Usage of business simulation games in
the management education
In order to collect the data, we investigated the websites of the
business schools. The usage of the websites of business schools as
the source of the information is widespread.
For example, Larrn et al (2017) used them as the source of the
information in their research on the ethics and corporate
sustainability courses at the top MBAs according to the Financial
Times Global MBA Ranking, as well as other research.
We focused at the top 10 MBAs according to the Financial
Times Global MBA Ranking 2017.
The data was collected from the 1st May to 1st June by the two
researchers from the MBA website.
In our research we did not contacted business schools in order to
retain objective approach towards the usage of business simulation
games in their curricula.
Courses using simulation games
None of the business schools teach the course that

is oriented solely to the business simulations in
general, but mainly used business simulations as
part of the course to support the learning.
In some
cases, the
course is
taught by
using the
business
simulation as
the sole
mean of
learning,
such as
Dynamic
Marketing
Strategy,
Strategic
Marketing
Simulations,
taught at
University of
Pennsilvania,
Wharton.
Case study of the Course Simulation
games for managers
Course covers the key features and use of simulation
games in specific business activities, such as financial analysis,
forecasting, marketing research, accounting, auditing, inland and
international trade etc.
Students are taught on how to evaluate the usage of
simulation games in management education.
Beside evaluating and using simulation games, students also learn
how to develop simple simulation games for managers on
simple case studies.
The Teaching methods rely on critical thinking and
analytical skills in order to learn how to assess the quality and
utility of the games.
Course syllabus
1) Introduction into business simulation modeling and
business simulation games;
2) Use of business simulation games in management
education;
3) Key features of business simulation games;
4) Use of business simulation games in specific business
activities;
5) Simulation games development process;
6) Future of simulation business games.
Software used
In order to get some insight in the simulation modeling, students
learn basic knowledge of system dynamics: the notion of feedback,
positive and negative feedback, usage of feedback loop digrams,
and usage of stock and flow diagrams. Students develop several
similar models using Vensim software and conduct experiments
with the software.
In order to present the variety of the business simulation games,
students play at each course the free simulation games that are
available at the web, mainly from the Forio website.
Examples of the games are: Tablet Development Sim (Forio,
2017a), Restaurant Wait Time (Forio, 2017b), Near Bear Game
(Forio, 2017c), and Project Management Game (2017d).
www.vensim.com
Example: Population modelling in
Vensim
https://forio.com/simulate/showcase
Example: Supply Chain Management
Conclusions
In this preliminary research we investigate a websites of 10 top MBA
business schools ranked by the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2017.
The result revealed courses that focus solely to the business simulation
games are rarely found, and simulation games are more often included as
part of different courses, e.g. Strategic management.
Most of the syllabus are focusing to the playing of different games, while
background methodology used or the simulation games (e.g. system
dynamics) is not so often discussed.
The findings of the study suggest that universities currently do not include
business simulation games to the high extent in their curricula, although the
students have indicated the high level of satisfaction with the active
learning approach as demonstrated in the case study.
The course Simulation games for managers taught at the Faculty of Economics
& Business, University of Zagreb was used as the example course focused
to the development and evaluation of business simulation games.
Future research will investigate 100 top MBAs listed at Financial Times
Global MBA Ranking 2017.
Thank you!
mpejic@efzg.hr
jzoroja@efzg.hr
mmfasnik@gmail.com

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Teaching Business Simulation Games:

Preliminary Current Practice Overview

None of the business schools teach the course that

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