THE BUSINESS GAME ECOMAN AS AN ALTERNATIVE DIDACTIC APPROACH TO PROMOTE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Design of the game:
Participants are divided into “markets”; each market consists of three or four companies with each six “directors” or “managers”. Each company will take over an existing company, that is why this initial phase is identical for everyone. Their “core business” is producing and selling solar panels. They have to compete with each other within one market.

The managers have to plan which strategy to adopt and which goals they want to realize within a period of three or four ‘fictional’ years. They receive information about their investments, finance structure, financial results and also receive some limited data about their competitors. They also receive some information about the economic outlook, i.e. prognoses about the economic situation, about the sector in which the company is active, and about decisions taken by the company’s board of supervisors.

Competences involved:

Knowledge:
There is substantial learning content in this business game. Participants with some knowledge of economics or management can apply the theory to the practice. Participants without any prior knowledge get the opportunity of acquiring a conceptual framework of economics and management through the game.

Skills and attitudes:
Participants have to process a lot of information in order to take the right decisions. The analysis of all data requires strong teamwork. Efficient meeting skills are necessary to meet the proposed deadlines.

The participants have to give a final presentation which concludes the game. Here one can choose for the mother tongue or a foreign language. When drawing up a written report each participant needs to master excellent writing skills.

Target groups:
The business game is organized for different target groups: students in the final year of secondary education, students of the Academic Master Program Commercial Sciences, students of the Professional Bachelor Program and companies. The level of difficulty and the language (Dutch, English or French) can be modified according to the target group.

We cooperated in two research projects who has shown that students tend to become more interested in entrepreneurship through e.g. these management games.