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This paper aims to address the necessity of allowing non-formal and informal processes to unfold when using business games for leadership development. While games and simulations have long been used in management training and leadership development, emphasis has been placed on the formal parts of the process and especially on the gaming experience.

This paper is based on a qualitative study of a French management game on change management, in which the game-based learning process is examined in light of adult learning.

This paper concludes that less formal dialogues that stem from formal activities make important contributions to the learning process. Consequently, the use of business games in leadership development should be didactically designed to facilitate such dialogues. While playing the game takes center stage, activities such as theory presentations, reflective processes, and less formal discussions must be allowed a place in an otherwise crammed learning process and to take up that space at the cost of playing the game.

As the study is based on a qualitative assessment, the impact of the different parts of the process is not assessed.

This paper suggests that the use of business games in leadership development should focus more on the processes and activities surrounding the game rather than narrowly focusing on the game.

This paper suggests a novel approach to using business games that is not aligned with the current practice of emphasizing the game as the focal point of the process.

VIBu – Virtual Teams in International Business – is the name of a training concept, which is aimed at familiarizing participants with collaborating in a virtual environment. Based on the online business simulation RealGame™, participants are assigned to multicultural virtual teams that represent different companies. These companies are either competing with or depending on each other in typical business processes of an internationally operating manufacturing company. Interaction and negotiation are required throughout the whole simulation. All communication takes place via information and communication technology, mainly Skype and Skype chat. The main challenge in the environment is that participants are located in different countries and time zones all over the world. The book chapter first outlines some of the challenges of global teamwork that organizations face. We argue that students need to learn how to navigate in global teams before they leave university as they are bound to become involved in organizational global teamwork sooner rather than later. We draw on frameworks for experiential learning (e.g., Kolb's learning model, Kolb, 1984) and the constructivist learning paradigm (Lainema, 2009) to outline the learning experiences that students need to gather in order to become effective global team members. In addition, we highlight the potential for learner engagement that this approach offers. The chapter concludes by highlighting the key learning and teaching outcomes from incorporating this cutting-edge simulation technology. Furthermore, we direct the reader's attention to ways in which the simulation can be used for research purposes, international inter-university collaborations, and multidisciplinary research on teaching practices and engaged learning.

This study aims to investigate an integrated approach that stimulates engagement and interaction in the online learning environment. A simulation game was developed to support the specific learning objectives (LOs) of the lecture and give students the opportunity to apply relevant practical skills (management and group decision-making). The simulation is designed to engage students, facilitate group work in teams and actively apply the knowledge from the lectures.

Qualitative research methods and a pilot version of the simulation game in an actual classroom setting were used. The primary LO was to apply decision-making in groups and experience the consequences of decisions on business success. The students were assigned randomly to five groups representing different competing companies.

This study revealed that a simulation game with a reduced scope can facilitate interaction and participation in online lectures. It demonstrated that it is possible to obtain the main benefits of simulation-based learning with a simple game that consists of few decision variables and requires minimal training.

There are limitations to this pilot study, some of which need to be address in future research. One limitation is the small number of participants (21). Another limitation is that all participants were from a class at an Asian university. While adding to existing research that focused primarily on Anglo-America and Europe, this study’s approach should be evaluated with more subjects from varying cultural backgrounds to validate the findings. The evaluation could be improved with more participants but also additional questions to measure how and why this study’s approach benefits learning success. E.g. it should be explored what component of decision-making or group learning was most significant. With this, it would also be interesting to explore incremental learning and learning across groups along the study duration.

The simulation game can be used in business education. Students enjoyed the interaction with their peers and the instructor. The students stated that it was a good learning experience for them and they made good learning progress.

The prototype demonstrated the general feasibility and the smooth handling of the practical application and integration in online lectures. The aim to develop a serious simulation game for online classes was achieved. It was possible to obtain the main benefits of simulation-based learning with a simple game that consists of few decision variables and therefore requires minimal training and time.

The purpose of this paper is to concern the use of analytics as a calculative engine enabling coordination and control for the development process in a creative digital business environment.

This research employs an explorative field study approach, using interview data from professionals working with free-to-play mobile game development. Drawing on the concepts of cycles of accumulation, accounting as an engine and mediating instruments, this study examines how organisational actors using the analytics in a digital business environment participate in the data generation that accumulates knowledge about and new insights into the desired outcome.

The real-time metrics provided the means for organisational actors to continually monitor, visualise and if necessary intervene in the creative “good game” development process. Timely quantification and visualisation of user actions, collected as digital traces, enhanced the cycle of information accumulation. This new knowledge resulted in a desire for improvement and perfection, which directed the actions towards the organisational objectives.

This study furthers our understanding of the performativity of accounting as an engine and the user behavioural data trace as its “fuel” in a digital product development. It highlights the role of analytics as a “fact-generating” device, capable of transforming the raw user behavioural data, the fuel, into powerful explanations through visualisations of ideals. The real-time metrics, understood as mediating instruments, enable the generation of new insights and accumulation of knowledge guiding the further development towards the desired outcome, the “good game”.

This study aims to examine the problems of the concession system that Macao has long-term adopted to regulate its gaming industry and discuss alternatives.

Theoretical reflection was used to provide qualitatively different insights about governmental supervision of the gaming industry.

Two options for reform are proposed: (1) replace the concession system with a licensing system that does not restrict the number of concessionaires or the period of concession or (2) adopt a modified form of the concession system that changes the number of concessionaires, period of concessions and methods for selecting concessionaires.

This study’s results have implications for the Macao government and other gaming jurisdictions in Asia.

This study provides a comprehensive examination of the concession system for governmental supervision of the gaming industry.

According to Harvard historian Crane Brinton, “…a cynical democracy, a democracy whose citizens profess in this world one set of beliefs and live another, is wholly impossible. No such society can long endure anywhere. The tension between the ideal and the real may be resolved in many ways in a healthy society; but it can never be taken as non-existent” (Brinton, 1950, p. 249).

This study has two objectives: to explore the factors that influence student self-efficacy regarding engagement and learning outcomes in a business simulation game course and to compare the difference between hierarchical and general teaching methods.

From September 2021 to May 2022, a questionnaire was administered to 126 students in a business simulation game course at the Zhongshan Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. Data were analyzed using nonparametric paired samples tests and linear regression.

The results showed that student self-efficacy, engagement and learning outcomes were significantly higher with the hierarchical teaching method than with the general teaching method. There were also differences in the factors that influenced self-efficacy regarding learning outcomes between the two teaching methods. With the general teaching method, student self-efficacy did not directly affect learning outcomes, but did so indirectly by mediating the effect of engagement. However, with the hierarchical teaching method, self-efficacy directly and significantly affected learning outcomes, in addition to indirectly affecting learning outcomes through student engagement.

Compared with the control group experimental research method, the quasi-experimental research method can eliminate the influence of sample heterogeneity itself, but the state of the same sample may change at different times, which is not necessarily caused by the hierarchical teaching design.

Based on the results of this study, teachers can apply hierarchical teaching according to student ability levels when integrating business simulation games. The results of this study can inspire teachers to protect student self-confidence and make teaching objectives and specific requirements clear in the beginning of the course, and also provide an important practical suggestion for students on how to improve their course performance.

The research results can be extended to other courses. Teachers can improve students' self-efficacy through hierarchical teaching design, thus improving students' learning performance and also provide reference value for students to improve their learning performance.

This study built a model based on self-system model of motivational development (SSMMD) theory, comparing factors that affect student self-efficacy regarding learning outcomes under different teaching methods. The model enriches the literature on SSMMD theory as applied to business simulation game courses and adds to our understanding of hierarchical teaching methods in this field. The results provide a valuable reference for teachers that can improve teaching methods and learning outcomes.

Once upon a time The war game, as originally developed, was of a free or unstructured type in which the umpire made on‐the‐spot decisions over problems arising during play, and also made an evaluation at the end of the game. The power which he wielded under these circumstances was criticised and, as a result, the war game designers decided to develop new rules and to make the existing ones much stronger. Thus in the late 19th century a German, Von Reisswitz, produced what is now known as a rigid war game or Kriegspiel. This is a game where there are detailed, non‐deviating rules with the provision for chance events produced by the throw of a die, spin of a wheel, random number, etc.

The origins of gaming can be traced back to the early 19th Century when the use of maps led to the birth of the rigid War Game (Kriegspiel). These were partly used for educational purposes (e.g. to improve military officers skills) and partly for research (e.g. to study military strategy in a variety of settings). From these early beginnings, a great number of different uses for games have arisen, and teaching and research applications have diverged. The question of how and why games are currently used as the basis for a growing amount of organisational research will be addressed in my second article. At the moment, the most popular and well‐known types of games are business games based on a particular company or sector of industry, and used for educational purposes. As such, they offer a number of unique advantages over other educational devices such as case studies, lectures, behavioural and other exercises. I believe, however, that the full educational potential of games has not been fully realised for a number of reasons. Perhaps the word “game” itself gives the impression of time‐wasting amusement for its own sake. Also, in common with many new developments, it took time for the full implications and requirements of games to be realised, and some early experiences were unsuccessful. In fact, there is still some disagreement on the merits of games relative to other learning methods. I now describe these potential advantages and how they may be realised, beginning with the key question of game reality.

Business simulations are increasingly used to facilitate knowledge transfer in management education. Although such simulations have already been widely applied in other disciplines, this method of facilitating learning has not yet been used much in financial education. This article reports on three studies that examine the value added by this experiential learning method in a financial management course, as perceived by students. The reasons for students’ experiencing this teaching method as positive are investigated. It would seem that financial education has much to gain from a wider application of business simulations.