Benefícios e dificuldades na utilização dos jogos de empresas: survey em cursos de graduação em administração na região noroeste do estado de São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

Construção de um sistema de gestão de materiais - MRP - Integrado ao Jogo de Empresas Mercado Virtual

Pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção - FEB

Jogos de empresas e gestão financeira: algumas evidências

This article aims to discuss the use of business games for educational purposes taking into account evidence about the difficulty in managing financial resources. The use of business games is justified because the young generation tha are coming to the education system have grown up using business games, allowing a more motivating learning environment and stimulating investment and on how the concept to provide learning. Instead of pushing content well defined and wel-formatted for the student, promotes the use of games promote at the same time, a chalenge whose solution entails learning effort. Thus, the use of games affect educators, students and aducational institutions, requiring them new attitudes and patterns of thought about schooling. The elaboration of this article was based on experiences gained with the development and use of games for educational purposes, specifically the game "Mercado Virtual". Several articles have been published on research with indergraduates and postgraduate courses in business administration and engineering field. They have shown that the evaluation of the player, based on their decisions during the game, to detect specific aspects of learning. This exploratory research is based on data obteained in various experiments with the game Mercado Virtual.

FINANÇAS COMPORTAMENTAIS EM DECISÕES DE JOGOS DE EMPRESA NA GRADUAÇÃO DA UMESP

Os 799 discentes presenciais cursando entre o 5º a 8º semestre que utilizam os jogos de empresas, inclusos nas 225 empresas ativas distribuídas entre os cursos de Administração geral; Comércio exterior; Administração financeira; Ciências contábeis e Ciências econômicas no campus Rudge Ramos da Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, foram submetidos a 6 cenários virtuais, com diferentes graus de complexidade, onde suas decisões foram investigadas sob a ótica dos aspectos heurísticos, contidos em finanças comportamentais, validando a hipótese de que suas decisões não são tomadas utilizando a teoria de mercado eficiente contida nas finanças tradicionais, modelo este que pressupõe que seus agentes são racionais e maximizadores de benefícios esperados, mas as tomam através das heurísticas comportamentais de efeito certeza, reflexão e isolamento, existentes no questionário da Teoria do Prospecto, Nobel de economia em 2002 por introduzir os insights da pesquisa psicológica na ciência econômica, especialmente no que diz respeito as avaliações e tomada de decisão sob incerteza, sugerindo uma mudança na função linear da predileção de perdas à ganhos, constantes em finanças tradicionais, para uma concavidade da função utilidade para ganhos e convexas para perdas, utilizadas em heurísticas comportamentais de Kahneman e Tversky (1979). Foi também efetuada uma análise de processos das 56 empresas virtuais contidas no 1º quartil, escalonadas em ordem decrescente, gerando duas proxys de confirmação dos resultados tabulados. Foi constatado uma superestimação de resultados possíveis ao invés de resultados prováveis, demonstrando fantasias das habilidades dos jogadores, equiparáveis com os resultados de Weinstein (1980), em até 71% acreditando serem melhores do que realmente são. Além de análise Qui-Quadrática que confirmaram que os resultados da teoria do prospecto são equiprováveis e equilibrados com o trabalho original, além do Teste-t entre amostras de variâncias equivalentes que geraram significância estatística, reforçando o modelo. Também foi efetuado uma análise das decisões por gênero nas respostas, para comprovar a irrelevância proposta por Hanna, Gutter e Fan (2001) quanto a predileção e aceitação ao risco.

“This beer is off!”:building a dialogue game for servitization

Purpose: Development and evaluation of a prototype dialogue game for servitization is reported. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reports the design of the iServe game, from user centered design, through implementation using the Unity games engine to evaluation, a process which took 270 researcher hours. Findings: No relationship was found between either age or gaming experience and usability. Participants who identified themselves as non-experts in servitization recognized the potential of the game to teach servitization concepts to other novice learners. Originality/value: The potential of business games for education and executive development has been recognized but factors, including high development cost, inhibit their uptake. Games engines offer a potential solution.

Jogos de negócio : o que leva o docente de cursos da área de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas a adotar a ferramenta de ensino

The Business Games are a growing teaching strategy and alternative to the academic front through the new process of Teaching and Learning. Through literature review and semi-structured interviews, this work addresses the teachers considering their subjectivity in deciding JN as the three profiles suggested by Faria and Wellington (2004): those who use it, those who stopped using and those who do not. The research corpus is limited to contributions of 22 respondents between master and doctors teachers of Applied Social Sciences area courses in colleges of Brasília (DF), Goiânia (GO), Ribeirão Preto (SP) and Uberlandia (MG). The content analysis of the interviews allowed to infer that: (1) join the teaching strategy is a commitment to a complex planning, with constant training and proactivity related to student feedback; (2) abandons the practice is becoming less common, because managers tend to recommend it and there are more and more software available for specific disciplines. Its discussed also other contributions (motivations) given by respondents of the three groups that were not found in the literature. It is hoped that this work will serve (1) incentive to teachers on the use of Business Games as a teaching strategy (2) consultation by managers when they decide about purchasing simulation software. Finally, stands out that the educational success of JN depends not only on the various motivations of teachers, as well as the interest and commitment of the student.

An Investigation into the Use of Computer-based Simulation Games for Learning and Teaching in Business Management Courses

Computer-based simulation games (CSG) are a form of innovation in learning and teaching. CGS are used more pervasively in various ways such as a class activity (formative exercises) and as part of summative assessments (Leemkuil and De Jong, 2012; Zantow et al., 2005). This study investigates the current and potential use of CGS in Worcester Business School’s (WBS) Business Management undergraduate programmes. The initial survey of off-the-shelf simulation reveals that there are various categories of simulations, with each offering varying levels of complexity and learning opportunities depending on the field of study. The findings suggest that whilst there is marginal adoption of the use CSG in learning and teaching, there is significant opportunity to increase the use of CSG in enhancing learning and learner achievement, especially in Level 5 modules. The use of CSG is situational and its adoption should be undertaken on a case-by-case basis. WBS can play a major role by creating an environment that encourages and supports the use of CSG as well as other forms of innovative learning and teaching methods. Thus the key recommendation involves providing module teams further support in embedding and integrating CSG into their modules.

Brand placements in computer and video games : an overview and research questions

Despite the size and growth of the computer and video gaming industry – as well as the increasing use of the medium for the placement of advertising and product placement – researchers have neglected this area. By drawing on existing literature and research in similar and related areas of film product placement, sponsorship and interactivity, the authors present a conceptual overview and identify areas for research.

A review of the video games industry in the United States

With increasing revenues for video game manufacturers, higher software sales and a more diverse audience, the video games industry has been experiencing strong and rapid growth in recent times, rivalling other forms of entertainment. As a result, games have begun to attract the attention of marketing practitioners who are finding it increasingly difficult to attract consumer attention, and are seeking alternative media for marketing communications. This paper provides a review of the video games industry in the United States and raises the question as to whether games are a viable new medium for marketing messages. Areas for research are identified.

Exploring product placement in video games : an investigation of recall effects

Despite its growth and prominence, product placement is generally under-researched and this is even more apparent in the area of placement in video gaming. This paper presents exploratory focus group research into this practice. Findings indicate that the introductory footage to a game provides placement opportunities with the highest level of recall, while peripheral non-action is the worst. Interestingly, recall also appears to be higher for individual brands as opposed to manufacturer brands.

Communication of business process models via virtual environment simulations

Games and related virtual environments have been a much-hyped area of the entertainment industry. The classic quote is that games are now approaching the size of Hollywood box office sales [1]. Books are now appearing that talk up the influence of games on business [2], and it is one of the key drivers of present hardware development. Some of this 3D technology is now embedded right down at the operating system level via the Windows Presentation Foundations – hit Windows/Tab on your Vista box to find out... In addition to this continued growth in the area of games, there are a number of factors that impact its development in the business community. Firstly, the average age of gamers is approaching the mid thirties. Therefore, a number of people who are in management positions in large enterprises are experienced in using 3D entertainment environments. Secondly, due to the pressure of demand for more computational power in both CPU and Graphical Processing Units (GPUs), your average desktop, any decent laptop, can run a game or virtual environment. In fact, the demonstrations at the end of this paper were developed at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) on a standard Software Operating Environment, with an Intel Dual Core CPU and basic Intel graphics option. What this means is that the potential exists for the easy uptake of such technology due to 1. a broad range of workers being regularly exposed to 3D virtual environment software via games; 2. present desktop computing power now strong enough to potentially roll out a virtual environment solution across an entire enterprise. We believe such visual simulation environments can have a great impact in the area of business process modeling. Accordingly, in this article we will outline the communication capabilities of such environments, giving fantastic possibilities for business process modeling applications, where enterprises need to create, manage, and improve their business processes, and then communicate their processes to stakeholders, both process and non-process cognizant. The article then concludes with a demonstration of the work we are doing in this area at QUT.

The impact of brand and product placements in electronic games

In an environment where it has become increasingly difficult to attract consumer attention, marketers have begun to explore alternative forms of marketing communication. One such form that has emerged is product placement, which has more recently appeared in electronic games. Given changes in media consumption and the growth of the games industry, it is not surprising that games are being exploited as a medium for promotional content. Other market developments are also facilitating and encouraging their use, in terms of both the insertion of brand messages into video games and the creation of brand-centred environments, labelled ‘advergames’. However, while there is much speculation concerning the beneficial outcomes for marketers, there remains a lack of academic work in this area and little empirical evidence of the actual effects of this form of promotion on game players. Only a handful of studies are evident in the literature, which have explored the influence of game placements on consumers. The majority have studied their effect on brand awareness, largely demonstrating that players can recall placed brands. Further, most research conducted to date has focused on computer and online games, but consoles represent the dominant platform for play (Taub, 2004). Finally, advergames have largely been neglected, particularly those in a console format. Widening the gap in the literature is the fact that insufficient academic attention has been given to product placement as a marketing communication strategy overall, and to games in general. The unique nature of the strategy also makes it difficult to apply existing literature to this context. To address a significant need for information in both the academic and business domains, the current research investigates the effects of brand and product placements in video games and advergames on consumer attitude to the brand and corporate image. It was conducted in two stages. Stage one represents a pilot study. It explored the effects of use simulated and peripheral placements in video games on players’ and observers’ attitudinal responses, and whether these are influenced by involvement with a product category or skill level in the game. The ability of gamers to recall placed brands was also examined. A laboratory experiment was employed with a small sample of sixty adult subjects drawn from an Australian east-coast university, some of who were exposed to a console video game on a television set. The major finding of study one is that placements in a video game have no effect on gamers’ attitudes, but they are recalled. For stage two of the research, a field experiment was conducted with a large, random sample of 350 student respondents to investigate the effects on players of brand and product placements in handheld video games and advergames. The constructs of brand attitude and corporate image were again tested, along with several potential confounds. Consistent with the pilot, the results demonstrate that product placement in electronic games has no effect on players’ brand attitudes or corporate image, even when allowing for their involvement with the product category, skill level in the game, or skill level in relation to the medium. Age and gender also have no impact. However, the more interactive a player perceives the game to be, the higher their attitude to the placed brand and corporate image of the brand manufacturer. In other words, when controlling for perceived interactivity, players experienced more favourable attitudes, but the effect was so weak it probably lacks practical significance. It is suggested that this result can be explained by the existence of excitation transfer, rather than any processing of placed brands. The current research provides strong, empirical evidence that brand and product placements in games do not produce strong attitudinal responses. It appears that the nature of the game medium, game playing experience and product placement impose constraints on gamer motivation, opportunity and ability to process these messages, thereby precluding their impact on attitude to the brand and corporate image. Since this is the first study to investigate the ability of video game and advergame placements to facilitate these deeper consumer responses, further research across different contexts is warranted. Nevertheless, the findings have important theoretical and managerial implications. This investigation makes a number of valuable contributions. First, it is relevant to current marketing practice and presents findings that can help guide promotional strategy decisions. It also presents a comprehensive review of the games industry and associated activities in the marketplace, relevant for marketing practitioners. Theoretically, it contributes new knowledge concerning product placement, including how it should be defined, its classification within the existing communications framework, its dimensions and effects. This is extended to include brand-centred entertainment. The thesis also presents the most comprehensive analysis available in the literature of how placements appear in games. In the consumer behaviour discipline, the research builds on theory concerning attitude formation, through application of MacInnis and Jaworski’s (1989) Integrative Attitude Formation Model. With regards to the games literature, the thesis provides a structured framework for the comparison of games with different media types; it advances understanding of the game medium, its characteristics and the game playing experience; and provides insight into console and handheld games specifically, as well as interactive environments generally. This study is the first to test the effects of interactivity in a game environment, and presents a modified scale that can be used as part of future research. Methodologically, it addresses the limitations of prior research through execution of a field experiment and observation with a large sample, making this the largest study of product placement in games available in the literature. Finally, the current thesis offers comprehensive recommendations that will provide structure and direction for future study in this important field.

Pockets of creativity in business processes

Creative processes, for instance, the development of visual effects or computer games, increasingly become part of the agenda of information systems researchers and practitioners. Such processes get their managerial challenges from the fact that they comprise both well-structured, transactional parts and creative parts. The latter can often not be precisely specified in terms of control flow, required resources, and outcome. The processes’ high uncertainty sets boundaries for the application of traditional business process management concepts, such as process automation, process modeling, process performance measurement, and risk management. Organizations must thus exercise caution when it comes to managing creative processes and supporting these with information technology. This, in turn, requires a profound understanding of the concept of creativity in business processes. In response to this, the present paper introduces a framework for conceptualizing creativity within business processes. The conceptual framework describes three types of uncertainty and constraints as well as the interrelationships among these. The study is grounded in the findings from three case studies that were conducted in the film and visual effects industry. Moreover, we provide initial evidence for the framework’s validity beyond this narrow focus. The framework is intended to serve as a sensitizing device that can guide further information systems research on creativity-related phenomena.