The Impact of SimVenture on the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in Management Students

Abstract

<jats:p> The purpose of this study was to bridge a gap in our understanding of the role business simulation games can play in the development of entrepreneurial capabilities in undergraduate students. While entrepreneurship education has come a long way from being a branch of business and management studies, to its current status as a core discipline in its own right, the debate on the pedagogy of entrepreneurship education continues. The best results in entrepreneurship education are achieved when students are exposed to action-oriented experiential learning that encourages problem-solving, creativity and peer evaluation. Game-based learning is an emerging pedagogy that brings together the evolving nature of young learners and experiential learning. Grounded in the theory of experiential learning and action research methodology, this study investigates how a particular business simulation game, SimVenture, develops not only students' business and management skills but also their entrepreneurial attitude and values. The findings suggest that the business simulation allowed students to face their limitations, overcome some of them and make significant progress in their learning. Using SimVenture improved students' appreciation of business in general and the challenges entrepreneurs have to face in running a business. </jats:p>

Assessing the enterprising tendencies of Arab female undergraduate engineering students in the Sultanate of Oman

“…In contrast to the results of the study by Williams (2015), who found that second-year undergraduate business and management students’ enterprising characteristics improved significantly after involvement with entrepreneurship simulation gaming, these engineering students lacked familiarity with their core degree program and possibly struggled to appreciate and apply entrepreneurship concepts. Also, they did not have business, economics, and management backgrounds or prior learning in those fields.…”

“…As already noted, evaluation of the impact of entrepreneurship courses and enterprise-related subjects on the mindsets of students has been limited (Oosterbeek et al, 2010; Williams, 2015; Zhang et al, 2014). To examine the entrepreneurial learning experience of 423 engineering students at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain, Barba-Sáncheza and Atienza-Sahuquillob (2018) developed pre- and post-course surveys.…”

“…Jarrar and Anis (2016) adopted a similar approach in studying 350 engineering students at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Williams (2015) investigated the impact of introducing business simulation software (SimVenture) on the entrepreneurial understanding of undergraduate students by conducting two surveys before and after the students’ practice with the simulation. Similar studies (Fayolle et al, 2006; Oosterbeek et al, 2008; von Graevenitz et al, 2010; Williamson et al, 2013) have tested short-term changes in students’ entrepreneurial attitudes by using before and after questionnaires.…”

“…Previous studies have shown the impact of entrepreneurship education by analyzing students’ responses before and after exposure to entrepreneurship or cognate modules or concepts in specific contexts, such as the use of enterprising simulation gaming (Smith et al, 2014; Williams, 2015). The outcomes of these studies provide specific guidelines about how academic practitioners could effectively implement such learning in their teaching practices (Yasin and Hafeez, 2018).…”

El uso de la gamificación en la enseñanza del emprendimiento: una revisión de la literatura

“…El incremento constante en la aparición de nuevos juegos serios para enseñar el emprendimiento está motivado, entre otros factores, por las diferentes políticas que están alentando la enseñanza del emprendimiento como una vía de desarrollo y bienestar social. En este sentido, tanto la OECD (2013) como la Comisión Europea (2006,2013) han señalado la importancia de la educación en emprendimiento por el papel que juega no sólo en desarrollar competencias, atributos y actitudes en los jóvenes sino también en su forma de pensar (Williams, 2015). De hecho, en los últimos años la Comisión Europea ha financiado diversos proyectos para la enseñanza del emprendimiento mediante juegos serios (PLAYER, StartUp_EU, ENTRExplorer).…”