Precha Thavikulwat

The Architecture of Computerized Business Gaming Simulations

Advances in the design of computerized business gaming simulations since the earliest works of the late 1950s are reviewed. A taxonomy of computerized gaming simulation is discussed, and the role of purpose in design is considered. Issues with respect to the representation, timing, hosting, and scoring of gaming simulations are covered.

Activity-Driven Time in Computerized Gaming Simulations

Pedagogically and administratively critical to computerized gaming simulations, the treatment of time can differ along three dimensions: scale, synchronization, and drive. Time can be fixed or flexibly scaled, synchronized or unsynchronized among participants, and driven either by the administrator, the participants, the clock, or the level of activity. Fixed scaling is more easily programmed; flexible scaling gives participants more freedom. Synchronization coerces participants unnaturally, but assures that mindless activity is not rewarded. Administrator-driven time is administratively burdensome, participant-driven time is difficult to code when decisions among participants are interdependent, and clock-driven time is inherently inadaptable to an irregular schedule. Activity-driven time can involve counting either decisions or accesses. Counting decisions encourages the churning of decisions; counting accesses encourages revolving access and collusive access, and can give rise to in adaptive pacing. Solutions to these problems and an application are discussed. Activity-driven time can enable gaming simulations to run for many periods without imposing excessive demands on either administrators or participants, and without engendering boredom. A symbiotic relationship may develop between gaming simulations and the study of temporal issues in management.

Modeling market demand in a demand-independent business simulation

Since Goosen (1981: 41) expressed his concern that relatively little had been written that provided &dquo;enough information to help the novice designer develop business simulations in an efficient manner,&dquo; several papers have been presented discussing mathematical functions for modeling market demand. Pray and Gold (1982) have shown that the demand functions for some published simulations are unstable, and Gold and Pray (1983, 1984) have proposed a set of equations that

Computer-assisted gaming for entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship, defined as executive deal making, involves four core activities: venture selecting, planning, executing, and assessing. These activities can be supported in a computerized gaming simulation to achieve cost-effective learning by doing, to study strategic processes, and to assess business education. Computerized gaming simulations give objective scores and can be comprehensive, flexible, and easy to administer They should game pedagogically important processes and model pedagogically incidental ones. DEAL is a computerized business gaming simulation designed to test the concept of gaming all markets (resources, products, money, and interpersonal relationships) in a multi-industry setting. Instructor configurable, network cognizant, and activity driven, it includes five instructor-configurable industries and seven participant-selectable roles. Being computer assisted, DEAL is generally very different from other computerized entrepreneurship gaming simulations, which are either computer based or computer controlled. DEAL incorporates all four core entrepreneurship activities and reveals the developmental stages of emerging organizations. DEAL resolves with computer assistance problems of participant antagonisms and conspiracies. A gaming simulation should be evaluated on the extent it games defining processes with administrative ease. Gaming simulations should have greater value in assessing entrepreneurship education than in facilitating it.

Profiling 40 Years of Research in Simulation & Gaming

The authors apply the research profiling method to review all the research that has been published in Simulation & Gaming since the journal’s inauguration in 1970. The data include 2,096 articles, of which 1,046 are research articles. The authors identify the prolific authors and their institutional affiliations. They tally referenced articles, title phrases, and descriptors. They find that the most prolific authors neither engage in more work division nor author more conventional thinking articles than less prolific authors and that the 51 prolific authors fall into 7 to 11 clusters.

Real markets in computerized top-management gaming simulations designed for assessment

Objective scoring, comprehensiveness, flexibility, and ease of administration are characteristics of computerized top-management gaming simulations (CTMGS) that suit them for the assessment of management education. These characteristics may be substantially enhanced by the inclusion of real markets. Support for real markets can be supplied by microcomputer local-area networks (LAN) and LAN-cognizant software. Additional advantages of real markets include relief to problems of team forming, decision cycling, hand-holding, end gaming, assignment evaluating, and debriefing. Three gaming simulations that incorporate real markets have been used in undergraduate courses. A great variety is possible in CTMGSs with real markets. The scores of CTMGSs with real markets are valid to the extent the markets appropriately reward business competencies.

A constructivist approach to designing business simulations for strategic management

The authors considered two principles of simulation design (simple rules and smart algorithms) and three essential attributes (choice of industries, employer-employee relationships, and real markets for products and participant services) for strategic management business simulations. They applied these considerations and a constructivist approach to develop a computer-assisted simulation, using it to investigate the concurrent and predictive relationships of market share and production experience on profitability. The authors found that the relationships are (a) as expected and stronger than those reported in an earlier study using a simulation of a more conventional design and (b) more consistent with a well-known series of field studies. They suggest that computer-assisted simulations developed through a constructivist approach may be used to advance the discipline of strategic management.

The Tournament Concept in Assessment

This article reports on two studies that were conducted to determine whether (a) total enterprise simulations are suitable for assessing business skills and (b) the tournament concept can be effectively applied to such simulations. The first study involved 141 senior business students; the second, 74. The results are consistently favorable on both questions. The studies also show that the free-rider problem that may have previously undermined the validity of simulation performance scores can be overcome by incorporating a system of individual performance scores, and that a progressively difficult simulation experience can keep participants challenged for 30 decision periods.

Developing Computerized Business Gaming Simulations

A paradigm for developing computerized business gaming simulations is discussed. Simulation is defined as a replicable representation of a process. Phenotypical representation, or modeling, is distinguished fromgenotypical representation, or gaming. Definitions of a configurable game, strategy, tactic, and entrepreneurship as they relate to specific games are presented. Gaming simulations should be evaluated on how well they support the genotypical representation of the processes that define the subject of interest. Computerized business gaming simulations may be more appropriate for the assessment of business education than for the enhancement of that education.

Modeling the human component in computer-based business simulations

From the perspective that business simulations are tools that aid teaching, this model comprises four functions: concave exponential, convex exponential, logistic, and cusp catastrophe. The functions determine the effects of recruitment cost, benefits cost, training cost, and wage cost on the productivity of new hires, as well as rate of attrition, productivity of trained employees, and size of the labor pool. A simulation (CEO) allowing participants to change both the variables and the parameters of these functions has been developed. Tactical decisions involve variables; strategic decisions involve parameters. These functions allow a clear distinction to be made between the two types of decisions.