Use of business simulation game as a multidisciplinary teaching tool

As part of the BComm (Accounting) programme in NUI Galway, an interactive, online business simulation game called Globalsym was used in the classroom in 2010/11. This game involved students managing a company and competing against other companies and was managed by both classmates and students in other Universities such as University of Texas. Students face decisions on how to handle the problems, opportunities, and challenges facing the modern company. It involved making decisions on marketing, strategy, finance, production, and sales each week in response to economic and political information. Companies operate as retailers or manufacturers of digital cameras and MP3 players in three different countries. Students must detail the initial strategy of the company and show how their strategy changed in light of new information each week. Students respond to a variety of external threats including inflation, political changes, legislative changes, security and other threats. The market is determined by the players, and companies compete against each other and not the computer. After reading the instruction manual, newsletter and consulting reports, students make a number of decisions including whether or not to sell to the consumer market, price, advertising, and production level, investments in manufacturing and financial moves. Students from different teams can also make contracts with each other in order to buy or sell goods. Therefore there are unlimited opportunities for realistic negotiation and networking between companies and players either over the web or face to face. Once the first decisions have been processed, the simulation provides feedback to student executives and the decision cycle begins again.