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.