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.