Management Simulations
Role-playing games provide real-world lessons
MIT
Sloan has long been a pioneer among business schools when it comes to action learning—creating
real-world applications of classroom knowledge. Management flight simulations
are the latest such application. These innovative and interactive tools create a
virtual world in which students explore and participate in the critical
management issues facing a range of industries and
organizations.
Management flight simulations bring an experiential aspect
to learning about complex systems. This type of action learning has more impact
on students than simply listening to a lecture or engaging in a case study
discussion. Students who participate in a simulation can see the immediate
consequences of their decisions and learn what it’s truly like to juggle
competing priorities amidst a constant influx of information.
Each
management simulation offers video user guides and online instructions for
students. Registered educators can access video teaching notes and slides that
introduce and debrief all aspects of the simulation.
Strategy Simulations
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Developers: John Sterman, David Miller and Joe Hsueh In this live, web-based simulation,
participants play the role of the founder of a new startup company in the
exciting and competitive clean tech sector. Can you develop your technology into
a successful company? Each quarter you must set prices, decide how many
engineers and sales people to hire, and set compensation, including salary,
stock, options and profit sharing. Will you pitch your firm to venture
capitalists or bootstrap and remain 100% employee owned? Will you win customers
and become cash flow positive before you run out of funds? Will you succeed and
take your firm public?
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Developer: John Sterman In this live web-based simulation, participants play the role of
senior management at SunPower, a leading firm in the solar photovoltaic
industry. The game simulates the solar PV industry as described in the SunPower
case study. Users compete against other firms, simulated by the computer, and
set the industry conditions so as to learn about strategy under different
conditions relating to learning, knowledge spillovers, and competitor behavior.
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Developers: Dennis Meadows and John Sterman Fishbanks is a multiplayer web-based simulation in which
participants play the role of fishers and seek to maximize their net worth as
they compete against other players and deal with variations in fish stocks and
their catch. Participants buy, sell, and build ships; decide where to fish; and
negotiate with one another. Policy options available to instructors include
auctions of new boats, permits, and quotas.
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Platform Wars: Simulating the Battle for Video Game Supremacy | |
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Developer: John Sterman In this live web-based simulation, participants play the role of senior management at a video game hardware platform producer, such as Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft. Built around a companion case study describing the launch of Sony’s PlayStation 3, the simulation explores the dynamics of competition in multi-sided markets. In such markets, success depends not only on a product’s price and features, but also on how many people own it (a direct network externality) and on the number of games and applications available—that is, the size of the installed base of complementary products (an indirect network externality). Platform markets are increasingly common in settings other than video games, including computers, the Internet and e-commerce, and mobile telecommunications. |
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Developer: John Sterman In this live web-based simulation, participants playing the role
of salt producers seek to maximize their profits as they compete against one
another in pricing salt. This game simulates the salt industry as it is
described in the “Ventures
in Salt: Compass Minerals International” case study.
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World Climate: Negotiating a Global Climate Change Agreement |
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Developers: John Sterman, Thomas Fiddaman, Travis Franck, Andrew Jones, Stephanie McCauley, Philip Rice, Juliette N. Rooney-Varga, Elizabeth Sawin and Lori Siegel World
Climate, a climate policy simulation model developed by Climate Interactive
in conjunction with the System Dynamics Group at the MIT Sloan School of
Management, provides an interactive role-play environment through which
participants explore the risks of climate change and the challenges of
negotiating international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
In a live, face-to-face setting, participants play the roles of major GHG
emitting nations and negotiate proposals to reduce emissions through the year
2100. Participants then receive immediate feedback on the implications of their
proposals for atmospheric GHG concentrations, global mean surface temperature,
sea level rise, and other impacts. World Climate enables participants to explore
the dynamics of the climate and impacts of proposed policies in a way that is
consistent with the best available peer-reviewed science but that does not
prescribe what should be done.
Sustainability Simulations
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