Quo Vadis Business Simulation Games in the 21st Century?

Abstract

Business simulation games have become popular in higher education and business environments. The paper aims to identify the primary research trends and topics of business simulation games research using a systematic and automated literature review with the motivation of research (learning driven and domain driven). Based on these findings, the future development of business simulation games research projected papers that research business simulation games were extracted from Scopus. Second, the research timeline, main publication venues and citation trends have been analysed. Third, the most frequent words, phrases, and topics were extracted using text mining. Results indicate that the research on business simulation games has stagnated, with the most cited papers published in the 2000s. There is a balance between learning-driven and domain driven-research, while technology-driven research is scarce, indicating that the technology used for business simulation games is mature. We project that the research on business simulation games needs to be directed in the area of new technologies that could improve communication with and among the users (virtual reality, augmented reality, simulation games) and technologies that could improve the reasoning and decision-making complexity in business simulation games (artificial intelligence).

Business Simulation Games for the Development of Intrinsic Motivation-Boosting Sustainability: Systematic Review

“…The interventions have shown that both board games [20,21,23] and digital games [10,11,[17][18][19][22][23][24][25]33] promote IM, offering different advantages. Thus, digital games allow more complex simulations of different areas of the company in detail, and also allow the simulation to be more complete by having a mathematical algorithm that generates multiple results [29]. On the other hand, in board games, students can visualize and manipulate physical objects, thus feeling involved and concentrated in the action of the task.…”

“…In addition, the fact that there are BSGs in different categories means that IM can really be developed from many different management fields, not only simulating being a manager of a company. Therefore, BSGs offer multiple possibilities, are open or flexible, and, in the end, are applicable to a wide spectrum of business areas [29]. Analyze the effect of the use of a BSG on learning outcomes.…”

“…BSGs are tools used to promote enterprise management learning by providing a scenario with rules and competition in a low-risk setting. BSGs give students the opportunity to study by simulating various real-world scenarios in a secure environment [29]. Thus, for example, BSGs allow students to learn about the economic laws of business and the market through a game [30], or they can enable a breakthrough in entrepreneurial attitudes and self-efficacy [31].…”

“…Thus, for example, BSGs allow students to learn about the economic laws of business and the market through a game [30], or they can enable a breakthrough in entrepreneurial attitudes and self-efficacy [31]. There are also studies that claim that BSGs favor the higher-order thinking skills that are reliable predictors of school and work success [9] and improve decision-making skills [29]. Other studies have worked on how such an important aspect as sustainability can be implemented in BSGs, so it can be seen that they can be a very useful tool for working on very different aspects [2].…”

“…The scientific community places a high value on this subject, so it is useful to be able to compile the knowledge that is currently accessible on various BSGs that encourage IM because, as the most recent research indicates, the achievement of high-quality education greatly rests on the IM of the students. To the best of the authors' knowledge, although some authors have summarized BSGs for education [12,13,29], a systematic review that includes BSGs for the development of IM in high education has not been published.…”