Is BSG-Online Suitable for Courses in International Business?

The Business Strategy Game is eminently suitable for those international business courses at the senior/MBA levels where the instructor wants to put strong emphasis on “global strategic management.” Incorporating The Business Strategy Game can enrich an international business course from several angles:

• It mirrors the increasingly global nature of today’s competitive markets.
• There are four distinct geographic market segments — Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. The four regional markets plus the three product segments (branded internet, branded wholesale, and private-label) create a virtual market-space with 12 market segments.
• Companies start the simulation on equal global and financial footing where rival companies find themselves in the midst of an ongoing contest for global market leadership. The contest is not just one of market leadership worldwide but one where companies contend for leadership in one or more of the 12 market segments. This contest gives students powerful insight into the dynamics and nuances of a globally competitive marketplace.
• Furthermore, the structural feature of The Business Strategy Game marketplace setting makes The Business Strategy Game “country and region neutral” so that students in Europe or Latin America or Hong Kong or Australia or South Africa do not see themselves as playing a United States simulation or managing a U.S.-based company. The Business Strategy Game is just as appropriate for use in international business courses taught in Switzerland or Great Britain or Mexico or Singapore or South Africa or Australia or Brazil as in the United States.
• The Business Strategy Game incorporates the use of import duties (which can be raised or lowered between any or all geographic regions).
• The Business Strategy Game puts fluctuating exchange rates into play. The revenues a company receives from footwear shipments to Europe-Africa are tied to real-world fluctuations between the euro and the U.S. dollar. BSG-Online automatically captures the pertinent changes in exchange rates from one decision to the next and presents the sizes of the latest upward/downward adjustments on the relevant decision screens for company managers to utilize in their decision-making. Thus, students will experience first-hand the business risks and impacts of exchange rate fluctuations.
• The Business Strategy Game provides you with a “live case” that you can use in your lectures to illustrate the application of key concepts in international business.
• The Business Strategy Game can serve as a full or partial substitute for the use of cases on international business cases.

We think you will discover that The Business Strategy Game will inject enormous energy and emotional involvement into an international business course from a student standpoint. Plus, it will provide a pedagogically effective way to connect the material in the textbook to the strategy-related problems of managing cross-border business activities in the real world.