Abstracts
Developing Business Simulation Games: A Choice-Based Modelling
Amarjeet Dua, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Shashi Shekhar Mishra, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Saji K. B., Indian Institute of Management Lucknow
Prior researches have established the positive role of game based learning in enhancing learning experience of management students (Low, 1980; Nemerow, 1996; Wolfe, 1993). Key characteristics such as higher levels of interest and enhanced interaction among participants facilitated by the use of Business Simulation Games (hereafter referred to as BSGs) have made them a preferred choice of faculty and trainers (Faria, 2001; Faria et al. 2008; Nemerow, 1996). With more and more B-Schools and management institutions opening up in the country, the Indian edutainment software industry is expecting a rise in the demand of BSGs, and yet to realize the full market potential. Prior researches have emphasized on the importance of product customization to the needs of specific market requirements that are being shaped by various factors such as geography, culture, etc. (Bruce et al., 2007; Chryssochoidis and Wong, 2000).
The extant research on BSGs has been carried out predominantly in the context of developed nations (Faria et al., 2008; Wolfe, 1993). Rarely did we come across any significant contribution in the existing literature that has investigated the domain of game based learning and related business customer preferences in India. A careful exploration pursued by the authors confirmed that there was no study reported so far in the extant literature, which had empirically investigated the preferences of Indian Business Schools for BSGs. The primary motivation behind this study was to address this critical research gap in the extant marketing literature, and to identify the features that are relevant for the choice of BSGs by the Indian B-Schools. Through the present study, an attempt has been made to determine the optimal levels of these features for the launch of a new BSG in order to gain maximum possible market share vis-a-vis existing games. The specific objectives of the study include: (i) to identify the attributes of BSGs that are important to business customers in the Indian market; (ii) to evaluate the overall utility perceived by the business customers for different profiles of BSGs; and (iii) to predict the optimum profile of a BSG that maximizes the share of preference for a particular game.
The research methodology employed for the study includes both exploratory as well as descriptive phases. In the exploratory phase, an extensive analysis of all prominent BSGs that are currently available in India was pursued in order to enlist their commonly sought-out attributes, which was followed by an expert survey for identifying the important ones among them. In the descriptive phase, choice based conjoint (CBC) methodology has been employed in order to evaluate the utilities and relative importance of the attributes. The scope of the study is limited to eliciting the business customer preferences in pedagogical institutions that are either using these games or are interested to include them in their curriculum. Therefore, it has been consciously decided to set the unit of analysis as a faculty member of an Indian management institute, who has the freedom to adopt a BSG for facilitating the learning experience to the management students. The effective sample size employed for the present study was 55.
The results of the study revealed that the Indian B-Schools do prefer games with networking capability to connect through Internet with symmetrical and content surplus designs. Also, the annual payment options are preferred more compared to other common modes of purchase. Findings of the study also throw light upon the importance of two other significant attributes, viz. User Interface and Functional Modules. In all, our study significantly contributes to the extant literature on BSGs in the emerging economies context of India. We earnestly expect that the results of our study could provide valuable guidelines to the game developers in designing the BSGs for the Indian B-Schools market by highlighting the critical attributes of BSG design and their optimum levels to achieve highest market share vis-a-vis the BSGs available in the Indian market.
Keywords: Business Simulation Games, Digital Game Based Learning, Choice Based Conjoint Analysis
References
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Chryssochoidis, G. M., and Wong, V. (2000). Customization of product technology and international new product success: Mediating effects of new product development and rollout timeliness, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 17 (4): 268-285.
Low, James T. (1980). Guidelines for the use of Business Simulation Games, Journal of Marketing Education, 2(1): 30-37.
Nemerow, L. G. (1996). Do classroom games improve motivation and learning?, Teaching and Change, 3(4): 356-66.
Faria, A. J. (2001). The changing nature of Business Simulation/Gaming research: A brief history,” Simulation & Gaming, 32(1): 97-110.
Faria, A. J., Hutchinson, D., Wellington, W. J., and Gold, S. (2008). Developments in Business Gaming: A review of the past 40 Years, Simulation & Gaming, 40(4): 464-487.
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