Business Games as Pedagogical Tools

This paper discusses business games as teaching tools in technology management (TM). The discipline´s traditional teaching methods, while appropriate for the dissemination of foundational knowledge, may not be the optimal means to provide students with a platform to link abstract concepts and real world problems. We suggest that business simulation games are an effective way to engage students in TM topics; that they prepare students to understand and cope with the ambiguities associated with real-world organizations. Specifically, we discuss our experience with the International Operations Simulation Mark/2000 (INTOPIA), a game designed to channel students into a stream of entrepreneurial decision-making. We employed the game over 12 semesters with approximately 1000 advanced MBA candidates. Our findings indicate that business games represent a sufficiently novel approach to teaching and learning.