Business Game-Based Experimental Active Learning Using a Multiagent Approach for Management Education

It is very difficult for students who do not have a business career or experience to understand business models or structures. In addition, business models from the student viewpoint remain largely within a model-based understanding, and students do not have practical opportunities to create an image of business uncertainty. Our goal is to provide an experimental learning environment beyond the level of the students´ hypothetical thinking about uncertainty in business. We have developed a versatile participatory simulation environment as an active learning environment for the university classroom. We apply a multiagent-based approach to represent the uncertainty of the business environment. This paper introduces one of our active learning programs, the Croquette Factory Game, for understanding business interaction with uncertainty. We show that this program provides beneficial educational effects for students in understanding a business model with uncertainty.