The understanding of strategy in a business simulation by students of business administration [doi: 10.21529/RECADM.2017014]

Abstract

The business simulation is an interesting tool for active experimental learning used in business courses in order to bring together theory and practice, comprising the knowledge of strategy. In this case study, we analyze this capability into a constructivist perspective, distinguishing our work from others that focus on the effectiveness of these business games. Once established the coherence between the study’s purpose and its epistemological approach of learning, taken as a mental effort that is at the same time social and personal, this paper attempted to reveal which concepts of strategy the students internalize after a business game course. We carried out a content analysis of the texts written by the students in their final exam. The results, while showing the possibilities of agency problems in the course, led the research team to conclude that students set partial dimensions of strategy, conceived as: mutual construction, management of errors, course of action, intention, path dependence and learned lessons, which were put together as a possible collective discourse built from individual fragments. Keywords Education in management; Teaching strategy; Business simulation.