Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning: Proceedings of the Annual ABSEL conference

Education Delivery Modes: A Post-COVID Study of Traditional and Online Classes in Managerial Accounting

Karen Shastri — 2024-03-05

In recent years, universities have been forced to adapt to online teaching methods due to the COVID pandemic. As these COVID restrictions were lifted, students taking an accounting-based course were offered the opportunity to continue to attend remotely or to return to a traditional face-to-face setting. In this study, we examined students’ feelings of engagement based on both manners of course delivery as well as their expectations of grade for the course. Our results suggest that face-to-face classes provide a better opportunity for following lectures, avoiding distractions, working on group projects, and communicating with instructors and their peers when given the choice between online and face-to-face classes. Students attending class in person also reported a higher expected final grade. However, students attending classes remotely reported appreciating the flexibility of the online format and correspondingly attended a higher percentage of lectures. Overall, these results suggest that students that have now experienced both face-to-face and online course formats may identify and register for course delivery methods with characteristics that more specifically appeal to their desired format regardless of its potential impact on their class performance. To the extent that universities can adopt as many of these characteristics in traditional/fully remote or hybrid type delivery methods, the potential exists for higher student satisfaction levels while taking into consideration student needs.

Business Simulations and Generative Artificial Intelligence: Synergy for Better Understanding and Decision-making

Joseph Kuvshinikov — 2024-03-05

Business simulations have transformed business education. Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has taken business decision-making and business education to new levels. Combining business simulations and GAI has led to significant new pedagogical synergies. The number of business factors considered and explored can quickly increase. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways faculty can coach simulation participants in prompting GAI and discerning how to apply the results to specific decision-making contexts. GAI rapidly equips faculty to embrace each teachable moment with simulation and real-world applications. The paper contains several examples of prompts applied in the context of the Income|Outcome (ASI) business simulation.

The AI Paradox: Unpacking the Potential and Perils in Business Education

Christopher M. Scherpereel — 2024-03-05

As business education faces significant challenges from technology advancements, we offer a exploration of the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and pedagogical methodologies. We highlight the transformative potential of AI, particularly in enhancing adaptive learning environments, personalizing educational experiences, and providing students with insights into contemporary business decision-making processes. However, this transformative potential is juxtaposed with a paradoxical challenge: the emergence of conversational artificial intelligence (CAI) systems, such as ChatGPT, which pose significant concerns regarding academic integrity. These advanced AI systems, with their capability to generate content autonomously, challenge the bedrock principles of originality, critical analysis, and ethics in business education. While AI promises a revolution in education, making it more accessible, dynamic, and tailored to individual needs, it simultaneously demands a reevaluation of traditional academic values and practices. We contribute to this discourse, elaborating on the dual nature of AI in business education: its unparalleled potential to revolutionize pedagogy and its inherent challenges that could undermine the very essence of academic rigor and integrity. This duality encapsulates the AI Paradox, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach in integrating AI into the educational landscape, one that harnesses its potential while vigilantly addressing its associated perils.

Exploring Differences in Online and Face-to-Face Student Engagement and Performance in Business Writing

Helen A. Soter — 2024-03-05

Disengagement and burnout are hot button topics in business around the world in 2023. Students and faculty are not immune to these challenges. This paper reports on a data-driven exploration of student engagement and academic performance in a business writing course across two semesters. This course was historically taught only face-to-face (F2F) but evolved to F2F, hybrid, and online offerings as a result of the pandemic. The professor’s intuition was that the online students were not as engaged and were not performing as well as the students in the F2F sections, and a closer look at the engagement and performance data verified that suspicion. The paper summarizes the data and findings and proposes future research to help others who might be curious about the outcomes of online versus F2F teaching.

An Incentivized Honor System for Grading Preparatory Assignments of Business Games and Cases: Theory and Implementation

Precha Thavikulwat — 2024-03-05

We present a theory and propose an empirical test of an incentivized honor system for grading preparatory assignments. Under the system, students apply an instructor-supplied rubric to self-scored submissions ex-ante, such that self-scores are delivered before or at the same time as submissions. The students’ self-scores are the students’ grades for their submissions unless the assignment is audited. When an assignment is audited, the instructor scores every submission and applies a veracity incentivized grading formula (VIGF) that includes a reward for veracity and a penalty for self-scores higher than instructor’s scores. From expected-value analysis, we derive fixed VIGF parameters for randomly auditing half of a series of about five assignments. We derive adaptive parameters for auditing a series of about 10 assignments, using the reversed harmonic series to decide on audit frequencies. Manual and computerized implementation mechanics are discussed, and remedies for students gaming the system are explored. We caution on using ex-post self-scoring, whereby students deliver self-scores following their submissions after a duration that allows review of teaching materials and training in scoring, because the interest of instructors in saving time may conflict with the argued pedagogical advantage to students of the ex-post procedure. We end with a suggestion for testing the theory with data.

Controlling Disruptive Technology: A Business School's Strategic Approach to ChatGPT

Kiersten Maryott — 2024-03-05

Colleges face a host of challenges post Covid, the most severe of which might be the disruptive innovation of ChatGPT. Generative Artificial Intelligence in general, and ChatGPT, in particular, is seen by some to not only be leading to the loss of jobs at universities but the obsolescence of higher education in general (Anft, 2023). This paper examines ChatGPT as a disruptive innovation, explores how one major research university’s business school is utilizing the tool and offers a potential framework for creating programming and policies designed to manage the application going forward.

Facilitating Online Business Simulation Debrief to Promote and Improve Learning and Professional Practice

Neharika Vohra — 2024-03-05

This paper focuses on improving learning outcomes from Online Business Simulations (OBS going forward) that typically focus on behavioural aspects of successful professional practice. These include simulations for the development of skills such as influencing, leadership, negotiation, stakeholder management, etc. In most of these simulations, learners engage (either individually or as part of a group) with a virtual real-life scenario in which learners take decisions to meet a particular or set of objectives following certain rules governed by certain conditions inbuilt within the simulation. There are four basic reasons why tech-enabled experiential learning simulations have become popular. Firstly, it is seen as a creative and innovative way to increase student’s interest in learning (Mawhirter and Garofalo, 2016); secondly, OBS provides learners with an immersive and risk-free environment to make situation specific decisions thereby enabling them to make the association between their theoretical and practical knowledge (Bell & Loon, 2015). Thus, as Shaffer (2004) claims, modelling learning environments on authentic professional practices (i.e., the practices of running a business) enables learners to develop deeper understanding of their domain and prepare them to better cope with business realities and complexity. Thirdly, the new-age OBS also helps track learner progress and offer targeted feedback on skills the learner can choose to improve on and receive specific training resources. Fourthly, the current generation of OBS are device agnostic and make learning possible anytime anywhere – which is most conducive for adult learners / working professionals on the go.

High School Research: Experiential Learning Insights from a Scholar and a Mentor

Eliza A. Abston — 2024-03-05

Senior theses and capstone courses are experiential learning activities that high school seniors sometimes undertake in their last year of secondary education. These experiences allow students to research a topic of interest while applying the knowledge and skills they have acquired. This paper provides examples of such programs found in high schools throughout the world, shares the reflections of both a scholar and mentor on a senior thesis in marketing, and presents the limitations of such endeavors as experiential learning. Avenues for future research are identified regarding undergraduate and career outcomes for students who engage in high school research programs.

Lessons Learned From a Decade-Plus of Coordinating Student-Presented Fundraising Events

David Bonko — 2024-03-05

Since I began teaching in 1997, all of my classes have included a significant amount of experiential learning assignments. My ABSEL Conference objective is to provide a reflection on coordinating an experiential learning exercise (a student-managed fundraising event) over the past 13 years that has benefited my students, their charity partners, and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Panel Discussion on Innovative Approaches to Supplement the Curriculum with Experiential Learning

Jacqueline Elcik — 2024-03-05

A college education used to be one of the ways a future employee could stand out among the many applicants. Now, the number of jobs that require a minimum of a bachelor’s degree has increased. Moreover, a good GPA and a completed bachelor’s degree is no longer enough. Experiential learning and skills development is becoming increasingly more important to employers when screening resumes (Job Outlook 2023, 2022); resulting in colleges and universities developing signature and high impact practices, as well as other activities to support out of classroom learning.
This presentation/session will share research on the benefits of experiential learning and will feature examples from three well established Colleges/Schools of Business; that have developed an experience-based approach to supporting students’ professional and personal development. Additionally, the Colleges/Schools have partnered with Suitable to share how they use technology-based tools to support these initiatives.

Beyond Tradition: Exploring the Qualities of Experiential Instructors

Céleste Grimard — 2024-03-05

This paper explores the qualities that distinguish experiential instructors from their more traditional counterparts. It proposes that differences can be found in relation to their preferred learning processes, the goal and content of learning, instructor characteristics, their degree of innovation and responsiveness to needs, their incorporation of reflective practices, and the potential for transformation through learning.

Do I Really Want to Work Here? A Case Study of Double Binds in Academic Job Selection

Céleste Grimard — 2024-03-05

In this case study, a new Ph.D. graduate, Ian Finagle, faces a critical decision regarding a job offer from Skirmish State University. As he looks back on his interviews with two selection committees, he senses a clear rift between the committees and recognizes that, if he accepts Skirmish State's job offer, he’ll find himself navigating conflicting job demands that may prove insurmountable. Our case study discusses how to recognize when a potential job is besieged by double binds – forming the very essence of a “bad” job in which the job candidate is caught in a net of contradictory expectations. Students studying career transitions, job selection, organizational culture, and academic careers may find this case study particularly relevant.

The Business of Business is Saving the Planet

Paul M. Klein — 2024-03-05

As an AACSB accredited institution, we are required to demonstrate how learning occurs and what steps must be taken to ensure learning. As experiential learning is understood as an engaged learning process, where students “learn by doing” and by reflecting on the experience, creating these opportunities can take many forms. As the AACSB , is encouraging and really urging member institutions, consistent with accreditation standards, to educate future business leaders, so that they understand the importance of making a positive impact on society and understand that to mean something beyond acts of service, charity or benevolence. Toward that end, students should have the opportunity to engage in course activities that position them to address some of our most vexing social challenges.

In this paper, the work of business students in addressing sometimes daunting societal problems will be examined. This is the focus of a specialized certificate program in which students pursue, in addition to their major, a Certificate of Professional Leadership in Ethics (CPLE). Specifically, the work that is done in this capstone course provides students with the opportunity to consider social challenges such as the future of juvenile detention, how we might best prepare individuals to build careers in the emerging green economy, what the fundamentals of a municipal climate action plan might be, creating a community benefit trust for communities that have endured the challenges of living with poor air quality and the dual challenges of homelessness (housing insecurity) and affordable housing.

Improving Creative Thinking Through Gameplay

Richard A. McConnell — 2024-03-05

“The fact is that everybody occasionally has a good idea, but for business, even though one good idea might take you a long way, the rate of change now really requires that people can be creative systematically, that they can depend upon their creative processes and powers. A lot of the work I do is about helping people understand how that can happen.”

Sir Kenneth Robinson, Why Should You Care About Creativity? - with Sir Ken Robinson - Business Podcast for Startups (mixergy.com) (Warner, 2010)

Teaching Business Through Mass Media: A “Vicarious Learning” Experiential Approach

Margaret Arrison Nolan — 2024-03-05

The purpose of this extended abstract is to provide an integrative approach for teaching multiple domains of business, such as management and marketing, through the use of mass media (film and television). Mass media is a form of pedagogy rooted in vicarious learning theory that has frequently been utilized in higher education to enrich students’ ability to meet learning outcomes (Mayes, 2015; Reyes-Santias et al., 2022). Vicarious learning was first introduced by Bandura et al. (1960) to demonstrate that learning can occur through the observation of others’ behaviors and recognition of the consequences of that behavior (Mayes, 2015). Mass media platforms, such as film and television, engage students in the learning process by allowing students to observe and analyze a variety of real or fictitious business scenarios while in a classroom setting.

AI's Endgame: Leveraging AI to Craft the Avengers Case Study

Christopher M. Scherpereel — 2024-03-05

In our research, we explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing strategic management education through storytelling-based case study development. Utilizing ChatGPT, a Generative AI model, we crafted a novel Avengers case study that serves as a modern, relatable educational tool. This AI-generated case study is rooted in the foundational elements of the classic "Robin Hood" case study, a well-established resource in the field. Our work validates ChatGPT's capability to produce short, content-rich cases suitable for single-class-period discussions or assessments. This addresses an existing gap in business education for timely and relevant case studies that effectively gauge students' analytical abilities. Moreover, ChatGPT's speed and adaptability enable instructors to swiftly generate alternative scenarios and corresponding answer keys, thereby maintaining the case's integrity in exam settings. Our research contributes to the evolving landscape of AI applications in educational case study development, particularly in strategic management pedagogy.

CURSUS: The Politics of Tenure and Promotion *A Case Study)

James M. Tolliver — 2024-03-05

Ian Finagle moves from his initial employer, Façade University, to Megalith University, a much more prestigious “publish or perish” institution. Although Finagle is granted tenure at Megalith after a few years, when he applies for promotion to full professor, he runs into political games played by his dean, Frank Caine. Learners are asked to analyze the events described in the case study from two perspectives, that of a professor’s career and that of the university, by drawing from the literature on organizational politics.

Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) Leadership Programs

Christine A. Weber — 2024-03-05

Only a few scholarly studies examine the relationship of equine facilitated learning (EFL) leadership programs to leadership theories, their related success evaluations, and leadership training. Characteristics of 13 EFL leadership program are explored to examine their ties to four leadership theories: authentic, servant, situational, and transformational, their requisite success evaluations of the leadership theories, and how leadership is incorporated within the programs. A qualitative research design addresses research questions through manual qualitative content and thematic data collection and analyses gathered from program website information. Interviews with four program leader participants about their programs are also explored. Program characteristics tend to be inconsistent. There are discrepancies among the programs and between the participants’ perceptions of their programs’ leadership theories and the information presented on program websites. Programs generally do not tend to adhere to one of the leadership theories investigated or to their related success metrics. Programs should be more consistent and subscribe to a specific leadership theory, or theories, so they can accurately, reliably, and with validity, measure their outcomes. Lee & Dankin (2016) and Arci. Et. al (2016) were among those who suggested that additional research is needed.

Learning through micro-credential experiences in Puerto Rican students: An exploration of Bank of America Jobs Initiative (BofA) perceived value

Anamari Irizarry — 2024-03-05

This study uncovers students, professors, and employers’ perceived value of micro-credential certification programs. Using a phenomenological methodology, we unveiled the meaning of participants’ shared experiences. We performed a narrative analysis of students' written assessments and built a robust information-gathering structure with professors'/employers' interviews. The construction of the certification perceived value is mainly based upon the affective domain of learning, producing connected representations from participant students, employers, and professors. For students, those representations include power, effort, nourishment, and closeness. For employers, themes are benefit and construction/deconstruction, whereas professors emphasized the figure of the teacher and freedom. Those representations build a figure of value perceived of the micro-credential consisting of knowledge, development tools, and affective connections in the context of deinstitutionalization processes.

A Serious Game-Based Focus Group Validation of BPI10, Business Process Improvement Practices

Antonio Vera — 2024-03-05

Serious games are usually developed for teaching and simulating specific real-life situations. Such simulations are meant to be reproduced in controlled environments. Practitioners in serious games perform actions before different circumstances by following a defined lifecycle. In addition, a goal must be achieved in order to finish/win the game. However, serious games are unnoticed when validating/demonstrating business process improvement (BPI) initiatives. In this paper we present a focus group conducted for validating a BPI representation including ten best practices (BPI10). The focus group includes three worldwide experts in the matter. In addition, a serious game was put in motion between the experts in a race to complete a project. We created a close experience between the experts and the implementation of BPI10 in a playful way. The study offers an empirical exercise which provides evidence that serious games are helpful tools when demonstrating/validating/simulating BPI.

Improving Student-Faculty Virtual Connections Via Emojis in Online Classes

Milena Quaresma Franzini — 2024-03-05

College online classes often lack the interpersonal connections found in traditional classrooms, mainly because of the absence of non-verbal communication cues. This paper explores the potential of emojis to bridge this gap in virtual learning environments. Emojis, graphical representations of emotions, expressions, and gestures, have become part of digital communication, especially among college students. However, their place in academic settings remains a question. This paper addresses the hesitation of both students and faculty to use emojis in educational communication caused by concerns about maintaining professionalism and perceived credibility in an educational relationship with asymmetric power. Research reveals that, despite these reservations, emojis can enhance the emotional quality of messages, clarify intentions, prevent miscommunications, and create a sense of connection in the digital realm. Findings indicate that emojis, when used appropriately, do not undermine the credibility of faculty. Instead, emojis can humanize educators, enhance student engagement, and build a warmer online classroom community. This paper explores the possibility that integrating emojis into online educational communications, with mindful consideration of context and professional boundaries, can be an effective strategy to enrich the virtual learning experience, resulting in more engaged and empathetic student-faculty interactions.

Earth Under Siege: The Game of Sustainability

Paulo Vicente dos Santos Alves — 2024-03-05

This article introduces a solitaire game for the classroom or personal use based on an adaptation of the States of Siege game engine used in many commercial wargames to model the global sustainability challenge of the 21st century.

The Earth systems are modeled by five variables (deforestation, ocean pollution, greenhouse gases, water scarcity, and soil degradation). These variables are impacted along the game due to population growth and consumption level growth. These impacts are countered by action units representing NGOs, regulation, R&D (technology), space resources (space), and governance (diplomacy).

The goal of the game is to limit the damage of the impacts so that the Earth systems don't enter a collapse. Civilization, as we know it, would come to an end, leading to a new dark age of hundreds or perhaps thousands of years. Instead, the aim is to achieve a new golden age of sustainable growth with a more manageable population level, new technologies, space resources, and prosperous global coordination.

It was designed for a two-hour session in a classroom or at home. Although designed as a solitaire game, it can be played in small groups of up to three students in a classroom.

The model simulates the challenges of increasing the population level during the 21st century, up to a forecasted 11 billion people, while increasing consumption levels to eradicate poverty and famine. This will generate several negative impacts on Earth systems with environmental and social consequences, limiting consumption growth itself. The way to mitigate those impacts and allow for a sustainable level of consumption is through the development of new technologies, obtaining access to space resources, and improving global governance through diplomacy.

The model is simple enough to give players a better view of the contradictions and solutions of this sustainability dilemma without entering too many calculations and statistics.

Decision Support-induced Engagement and Learning Trends by Simulation Phase

Aspy P. Palia — 2024-03-05

Based on learning and engagement theory, this disaggregated longitudinal trend analysis of decision support-induced engagement during Spring 2021 and Spring 2022 illustrates that early introduction of decision support system (dss) packages and freedom of choice results in increased dss usage tied to course assignments during each simulation phase. Further, the results support the hypothesis that user autonomy, relatedness, and competence foster dss-induced engagement, and that complex heavy workload demands under time pressure can be offset by the range of decision-making freedom and the amount of support provided. Based on prior participant suggestions, early dss introduction and support during the Spring 2022 semester resulted in increased online activity on both the simulation portal and course website. Participants downloaded and used more relevant dss packages tied to course assignments during each simulation phase. Enhanced understanding and application of strategic marketing concepts resulted in improved team presentations and individual strategic market plan reports.

Development of entrepreneurial intention through simulation in HEIs

Jason Evans — 2024-03-05

We report the results of a research study that seeks to understand the impact of simulation-based training (SBT) on the entrepreneurial intentions of a student cohort at a UK higher education institution (HEI). The research builds on previous studies in two ways: (1) By utilizing a phenomenological approach to the question of intention development as a direct outcome of simulation experience; (2) By supplementing and enhancing our understanding of student experience using a mixed method approach. Our study sits at the nexus of three current avenues of importance in business school education: (1) Understanding the development of student’s entrepreneurial intentions as an outcome of SBT in the HEI context; (2) Embedding experiential learning within business schools as a potential tool to support student intentions; and (3) Charting a course for future developments in entrepreneurship within HEIs.

Employment Skills Development and SBT: an ongoing investigation of postgraduate student perceptions

Clive Kerridge — 2024-03-05

The authors report the results of a long-term research study covering two full cohort years’ experiences of simulation-based training (SBT) activities. The research builds on previous studies by (a) extending the sample group to encompass two large diverse postgraduate cohorts, engaging with the same SBT activity; and (b) supplementing and enhancing our understanding of student experience using focus group activity. This study contributes to the field of simulation applications in business school education in three important ways: (1) Development of skills that enhance students’ employability prospects and future career development; (2) Engaging increasingly diverse cohorts of students in the post-graduate space; (3) Embedding of experiential learning within business school curricula – in the context of this study, through simulation-based training [SBT]. The study that is being conducted will report qualitative and quantitative data and analysis to draw conclusions and make recommendations for further development of SBT in the HEI context, with a particular focus on employability.

The Effectiveness of Simulation-Based Learning from the Perspective of Knowledge Structure: A Conceptual Framework

Uyen-Phuong Nguyen — 2024-03-05

Prior research on the use of simulations and serious games for teaching sustainability, as well as simulation-based learning in general, has rarely distinguished between different types or structures of knowledge when assessing learning outcomes. This paper aims to offer a conceptual framework and provide examples that can assist researchers and practitioners in developing and assessing the effectiveness of simulation-based learning in relation to knowledge-related outcomes: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conditional knowledge. The significance of this paper is to emphasize the necessity of rigorously conceptualizing and measuring knowledge as learning constructs in empirical research that utilizes simulation and gaming, which hopefully contributes to the research on the effectiveness of simulation-based learning.

Applicability of serious games to project manager’s competences assessment – literature review

Marcin Opas — 2024-03-05

More than 20% of global economic activity occurs as projects nowadays, and effective project management may generate an essential competitive advantage for companies. With the increasing complexity of projects across various industries, project management has become a critical skill set for organizations. This paper presents a literature review of simulation games for teaching project management, focusing on project managers’ competencies. The authors use systematic and classical literature reviews, analyzing current research areas of simulation games adoption for project management, learning goals and skills, and assessment models. The literature review findings are then compared to the competency model of the IPMA and analyzed for similarities and differences. The paper’s conclusions suggest the need for further development in the area of project manager competency games, assessment models, and simulation gaming, providing opportunities for adoption and usability.

The Power of Contextual Learning: Using the Juice SPC Game to Teach Control Charts in Operations Management

Christopher M. Scherpereel — 2024-03-05

We introduce a new way to teach a complex topic in business education called Statistical Process Control (SPC) through a newly developed simulation called the Juice SPC Challenge. We noticed that learners often find it hard to grasp SPC concepts when taught using traditional methods like lectures and textbooks. The Juice SPC Challenge offers a hands-on experience, letting participants apply as they learn in a simulated real-world context. Using a well-known framework, we evaluate the effectiveness of contextual learning, focusing on how participants react to the simulation and any changes in their attitudes towards the subject. We surveyed 66 learners after they completed the challenge and found that they reported significant learning gains. Specifically, they felt more confident in tackling complex problems, a key goal in business education. The simulation also helped learners understand when and how to use control charts, a crucial tool in SPC. They learned to differentiate between creating and monitoring control charts, a common area of confusion, and how to make decisions based on control chart data. The simulation provided immediate feedback on their decisions, something not possible with traditional teaching methods. Our findings contribute to the ongoing debate about the best ways to teach business topics, showing that experiential learning methods like our simulation can offer significant benefits.

What do students think? Comparing and contrasting four strategic management simulations.

Lois M. Shelton — 2024-03-05

Qualitative data was collected from eight capstone undergraduate online strategic management classes (263 students) taught from Summer 2020 to Summer 2023. Students in each class played one of four strategic management simulations: Hubro Business, Strategic Management-Bikes (Marketplace Simulations), The Business Strategy Game, or Capstone 2.0 (Capsim). An analysis of student responses demonstrated the following: 1) Students primarily valued realism, competition, and teamwork in simulations; 2) More complex simulations were not considered more realistic; 3) Students did not prefer relatively simple simulations to relatively complex simulations, as long as they had adequate support.

Employability Skills Development for Undergraduate Accounting Students Using a Business Simulation Game: A Case Study of the Use of Accounting BISSIM

Matt Davies — 2024-03-01

This paper provides a case study of the use of the Accounting Bissim business simulation game to develop accounting undergraduate students’ employability skills at two UK universities: Aston University and De Montfort University. The authors, who co-developed the Accounting Bissim simulation in 2015, explain how their use of the simulation supports the development of the 11 key skills sought by modern employers (CMI, 2021) within both a second-year course at Aston University, in which employability skills development is the primary focus, and a final year course at De Montfort University, in which employability skills development is a secondary objective. The paper also includes some preliminary evidence of student perceptions of the impact of the simulation on their skills development. The paper responds to a gap in the literature as there is very limited evidence of the use of business simulation games for employability skills development in accounting programs.