Using Business Games in Teaching DSS

Journal of Information Systems Education, Spring 2007 by Ben-Zvi, Tal

ABSTRACT

In this study a business game is used as a vehicle for implementing decision support systems (DSS). Eighteen companies, consisting of ninety graduating M.B.A. students, participating in a business game were required to develop DSS and to report on the systems developed. Each of the eighteen companies developed a system of their own choosing, without external guidance. Individual questionnaires were later used to evaluate a number of relevant variables: use of systems, contribution of systems, association with systems and user satisfaction. Findings, compared with reported results of previous empirical study, exhibit differentiations in success of DSS between companies. This indicates the potential of using business games as an educational tool for teaching management information systems (MIS) and DSS.

Keywords: Business Game, Education, Teaching, Decision Support Systems, Simulation

(ProQuest-CSA LLC: ... denotes formulae omitted.)

1. INTRODUCTION

"You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation". This Plato's adage of learning from games is truly captured when games are employed as an educational tool. In the last decade, many business schools have been demanding major changes in the way of teaching: use of real-world applications, cases, spreadsheets, and collaboration with other functional areas, which can be described as "Learning by Doing". Teaching has also been experiencing a number of revolutions simultaneously: enduser computing, the world-wide-web, distance learning and cooperative learning (Erkut, 2000).

One of the contemporary used methods of teaching is learning with simulations or business games. Sometimes, the complexity and the cost involved in creating simulated environments encourage teachers to use the traditional learning methods rather than simulations or games. However, the educational effectiveness of business simulations is widely accepted and has been recognized in previous research (Cox, 1999; Michaelson et al., 2001; Parker and Swatman, 1999; Tomlinson and Masuhara, 2000; Yeo and Tan, 1999). With the improvement of technology, simulation exercises have become more sophisticated and user friendly. The student can now concentrate on the content and learning in the gaming exercise without getting too diverted by the mechanics of playing the game (Pillutla, 2003). Therefore, a method of learning through games, when adrenalin rush, active involvement and motivation are at their peak, may be used as a vehicle to get students to be excited about and to internalize the studied subject (Harper et al., 2000; Rieber, 1996; Parker and Swatman, 1999; Rafaeli and Ravid, 2003).

Furthermore, in the practical and field related MIS domain, the teaching of information systems is mainly based on lectures and cases and ignores important practice and implementation topics. Although the transition from theory to the ability and propensity to implement knowledge in an abstract area like management is not simple (Rafaeli et al., 2003), management students usually do not have the time and ability during their curriculum to take advanced courses in MIS and DSS design and where they can get a full appreciation of the MIS perspective and develop some practical skills. However, today's managers must become more familiar with the competences of contemporary hardware and software systems to better grasp the managerial viewpoint of MIS problems. We believe that the approach of using simulations to teach MIS to management students has significant advantages over other approaches (see also Courtney and Jenson, 1981; Courtney et al., 1978; Martin, 2000). The objective of this paper is to suggest general-purpose business games as an educational environment for learning and implementing MIS and DSS and to report on an experiment with one such game.

The paper is organized as follows: section 2 reviews business game simulations. section 3 explores the game employed in this study. In section 4 we examine the implementation of DSS in the proposed game and analyze some related variables. In section 5 we discuss the applicability of this study and draw some conclusions.

2. BUSINESS GAME SIMULATIONS

A general-purpose business game is, by definition, a highly complex man-made environment. Business simulation games are occasionally described in the literature. In 2001, a special issue of Simulation & Gaming (Volume 32, no. 4, 2001) was dedicated to the state of the art and science of simulation and gaming. Wolfe and Crookall (1998) assessed the state of simulation and gaming as a scientific discipline.

The objective of a business game is to offer students the opportunity to learn by doing in as authentic a management situation as possible and to engage them in a simulated experience of the real world (e.g., Garris et al., 2002; Martin, 2000). In most cases; this makes the business game impractical for controlled experimentation. However, it enhances the characteristics of the game as a simulation of real life, and behavior observed may be generalized to reality (e.g., Babb et al., 1966; Lainema and Makkonen, 2003).