Business Simulation Game Research

Simulations have been a great source for academic research for more than 40 years. They have been used and sited in many dozens of research papers and presentations over a wide variety of topic areas including business policy and strategy, ethics, business education, and entrepreneur to name a few. A recent search of Google Scholar produced hundreds of citations for using our or other simulations to assess student learning.

Research on Business Simulations and Learning

A very brief list of interesting articles would include

• How students "play" business simulations and what they learn: The preliminary report . This paper is the initial report on a large-scale study of how business students participate in business simulations and, in general, what they learn by participating in them.

• An exploration of game-derived learning in total enterprise simulations. This article reports a series of exploratory studies dealing with learning in total enterprise simulations. The results showed that learning occurred from simulation play but did not vary with performance.

• Marketing simulation games: A review of issues in teaching and learning. The purposes of the research reported here are to understand marketing students' perceptions of the learning achieved from the use of simulation games, and marketing lecturers' perceptions of the barriers to increased use of simulation games. The paper will be of interest to both current and future users of simulation games who may have questions about how to use them most effectively in the classroom.

• Comparing objective measures and perceptions of cognitive learning in an ERP simulation game: a research note. The results of objective measures of learning are compared with those of self-assessed perceptions of learning in the context of an ERP business simulation game. Based on the comparisons of learning measures, self-assessed measure results were not different from those of objective measures; moreover, learning did occur.

• Total enterprise simulation performance and participant learning. The study reports on (1) the use of the Simulation Participation Attitude Scale (SPAS) to measure attitudes of business students toward whole enterprise simulations and (2) student attitude differences associated with exposure to different simulations.

• Relationships between game attributes and learning outcomes: Review and research proposals. Games are an effective and cost-saving method in education and training. The authors report on what specific game attributes have an impact on learning outcomes.

• Student learning in business simulation: An empirical investigation. The authors explored the factors contributing to student learning in the context of business simulation. The results suggest that social interaction and psychological safety had a positive impact on knowledge development in student groups, and that this synergistic knowledge development enabled students to form complex mental models.

• Business simulations and cognitive learning: Developments, desires, and future directions. This article focuses on the research associated with the assessment of the cognitive learning that occurs through participation in a simulation exercise. It summarizes the objective evidence regarding cognitive learning versus the perceptions of cognitive learning achieved as reported by participants and instructors.