Simulations in Entrepreneurship Education: Serious Games and Learning Through Play

Entrepreneurship education continues to grow and develop worldwide. This article seeks to expand knowledge and understanding of educational practice in entrepreneurship by focusing on serious games, specifically computer simulations which model entrepreneurship. This paper begins by reviewing the entrepreneurship education literature to consider the role of simulations, explores the nature of serious games, and assesses the role of such games in simulating entrepreneurial learning. This research uses systematic literature review techniques to collect data on serious games, analyzes these games and provides five detailed case studies on the games. The paper concludes with a discussion of what serious games currently simulate in entrepreneurial learning, and directions for future research.

[1]  Raimar Richers The theory of economic development , 1961 .

[2]  J. Gerring A case study , 2011, Technology and Society.

[3]  Nancy Upton,et al.  Evaluation of an Innovative Approach to Teaching Entrepreneurship , 1987 .

[4]  Allan Gibb,et al.  Designing Effective Programmes for Encouraging the Business Start‐up Process: Lessons from UK Experience , 1987 .

[5]  W. Gartner “Who Is an Entrepreneur?” Is the Wrong Question , 1988 .

[6]  George H. Haines,et al.  The Ombudsman: Teaching Entrepreneurship , 1988 .

[7]  K. Eisenhardt Building theories from case study research , 1989, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[8]  Randall P. Sadowski,et al.  Introduction to Simulation Using Siman , 1990 .

[9]  Van G. H. Clouse A Controlled Experiment Related Entrepreneurial Education to Students' Start-Up Decisions , 1990 .

[10]  John H. Kelmar Business Plans for Teaching Entrepreneurial Behaviour , 1992 .

[11]  Karl H. Vesper,et al.  Experiments in entrepreneurship education: Successes and failures , 1994 .

[12]  Sankaran Venkataraman,et al.  Developing an Entrepreneurship Game for Teaching and Research , 1994 .

[13]  Jason Cope,et al.  Ansoff’s matrix, pain and gain: growth strategies and adaptive learning , 1998 .

[14]  Raymond W. Smilor,et al.  Entrepreneurship: Reflections on a subversive activity , 1997 .

[15]  G. Gorman,et al.  Some Research Perspectives on Entrepreneurship Education, Enterprise Education and Education for Small Business Management: A Ten-Year Literature Review , 1997 .

[16]  P. Drucker The discipline of innovation. , 1998, Harvard business review.

[17]  Richard T. Harrison,et al.  A process model for entrepreneurship education and development , 1999 .

[18]  J. Whitney Case Study Research , 1999 .

[19]  E. Deci,et al.  Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. , 2000, The American psychologist.

[20]  S. Shane,et al.  The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research , 2000 .

[21]  J. Cope,et al.  Learning by doing – An exploration of experience, critical incidents and reflection in entrepreneurial learning , 2000 .

[22]  Shawn P. Daly Student-Operated Internet Businesses: True Experiential Learning in Entrepreneurship and Retail Management , 2001 .

[23]  Kevin Hindle A Grounded Theory for Teaching Entrepreneurship Using Simulation Games , 2002 .

[24]  A. Gibb In Pursuit of a New 'Enterprise' and 'Entrepreneurship' Paradigm for Learning: Creative Destruction, New Values, New Ways of Doing Things and New Combinations of Knowledge , 2002 .

[25]  Hugh M. Cannon,et al.  Constructs of Simulation Evaluation , 2002 .

[26]  Espen Aarseth Playing Research: Methodological approaches to game analysis , 2003 .

[27]  D. Shepherd Learning from Business Failure: Propositions of Grief Recovery for the Self-Employed , 2003 .

[28]  Martyn Robertson,et al.  The video role model as an enterprise teaching aid , 2003 .

[29]  J. Stewart,et al.  Mentoring in undergraduate business management programmes , 2003 .

[30]  Jerome A. Katz The chronology and intellectual trajectory of American entrepreneurship education: 1876–1999 , 2003 .

[31]  A. Wilkinson,et al.  Organizational Failure: A Critique of Recent Research and a Proposed Integrative Framework , 2004 .

[32]  Andy Neely,et al.  Introduction to Special Issue: Innovation and Productivity Performance in the UK , 2004 .

[33]  David W. Taylor,et al.  Entrepreneurial learning: a process of co‐participation , 2004 .

[34]  J. Ulijn,et al.  Teaching Business Plan Negotiation , 2004 .

[35]  David Tranfield,et al.  Co‐producing management knowledge , 2004 .

[36]  Allan Macpherson,et al.  Knowledge within small and medium-sized firms: a systematic review of the evidence , 2005 .

[37]  Diamanto Politis The Process of Entrepreneurial Learning: A Conceptual Framework , 2005 .

[38]  David Rae,et al.  Entrepreneurial learning: a narrative‐based conceptual model , 2005 .

[39]  Richard T. Harrison,et al.  Entrepreneurial Learning: Researching the Interface between Learning and the Entrepreneurial Context , 2005 .

[40]  R. Thorpe,et al.  Using Knowledge within Small and Medium-Sized Firms: A Systematic Review of the Evidence , 2005 .

[41]  J. Cope,et al.  Toward a Dynamic Learning Perspective of Entrepreneurship , 2005 .

[42]  O. Jones,et al.  Inter-organizational learning and strategic renewal in SMEs: extending the 4I Framework , 2006 .

[43]  Michelle F. Wright,et al.  Computer Gaming and Interactive Simulations for Learning: A Meta-Analysis , 2006 .

[44]  Jeffery S. McMullen,et al.  Entrepreneurial Action And The Role Of Uncertainty In The Theory Of The Entrepreneur , 2006 .

[45]  Tarja Susi,et al.  Serious Games : An Overview , 2007 .

[46]  Luke Pittaway,et al.  Simulating Entrepreneurial Learning , 2007 .

[47]  Jonas Gabrielsson,et al.  Entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards failure – an experiential learning approach , 2007 .

[48]  J. Cope,et al.  Entrepreneurship Education , 2007 .

[49]  O. Jones,et al.  Entrepreneurial Ventures in Higher Education , 2008 .

[50]  Theo J. B. M. Postma,et al.  Entrepreneurial learning: Conceptual frameworks and applications , 2008 .

[51]  John Hattie,et al.  Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement , 2008 .

[52]  Pamela Baxter,et al.  Qualitative Case Study Methodology: Study Design and Implementation for Novice Researchers , 2008 .

[53]  Dean A. Shepherd,et al.  The death of an innovative project: How grief recovery enhances learning , 2009 .

[54]  J. Wincent,et al.  THE NATURE AND EXPERIENCE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL PASSION , 2009 .

[55]  S. Kotha,et al.  Entrepreneur Passion And Preparedness In Business Plan Presentations: A Persuasion Analysis Of Venture Capitalists' Funding Decisions , 2009 .

[56]  R. Duane Ireland,et al.  Architecture of Entrepreneurial Learning: Exploring the Link among Heuristics, Knowledge, and Action , 2009 .

[57]  Oswald Jones,et al.  Learning in owner-managed small firms: Mediating artefacts and strategic space , 2010 .

[58]  Jutta Huebscher,et al.  Effects of Entrepreneurship Simulation Game Seminars on Entrepreneurs’ and Students’ Learning , 2010 .

[59]  Robert A. Baron,et al.  How entrepreneurs acquire the capacity to excel: insights from research on expert performance , 2010 .

[60]  J. Cope,et al.  Entrepreneurial learning from failure: An interpretative phenomenological analysis , 2011 .

[61]  Mine Karatas‐Ozkan Understanding relational qualities of entrepreneurial learning: Towards a multi-layered approach , 2011 .

[62]  L. Ge,et al.  Research fronts of international entrepreneurship education in the visual threshold of knowmetrics , 2012 .

[63]  R. Thorpe,et al.  A framework for entrepreneurial learning: A tribute to Jason Cope , 2012 .

[64]  Heidi M. Neck,et al.  Entrepreneurship education: known worlds and new frontiers , 2011, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[65]  Johan Wiklund,et al.  Exploring the Heart: Entrepreneurial Emotion is a Hot Topic , 2012 .

[66]  Eleanor Hamilton,et al.  Intrafamily Entrepreneurship: The Formation and Membership of Family Entrepreneurial Teams , 2013 .

[67]  Chien-Chi Tseng Connecting Self-Directed Learning with Entrepreneurial Learning to Entrepreneurial Performance , 2013 .

[68]  A. Fayolle Personal views on the future of entrepreneurship education , 2013 .

[69]  A. Herzi Differentiating Entrepreneurs from Small Business Owners: A Conceptualization , 2013 .

[70]  D. Shepherd,et al.  Life After Business Failure , 2013 .

[71]  Olivier Giacomin,et al.  Student entrepreneurial optimism and overconfidence across cultures , 2016 .

[72]  R. Baptista,et al.  A Systematization of the Literature on Entrepreneurship Education , 2014 .

[73]  Catherine L. Wang,et al.  Entrepreneurial Learning: Past Research and Future Challenges , 2014 .

[74]  Geertje Bekebrede,et al.  The research and evaluation of serious games: Toward a comprehensive methodology , 2014, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[75]  I. Mayer,et al.  Game-Based Entrepreneurship Education: Identifying Enterprising Personality, Motivation and Intentions Amongst Engineering Students , 2014 .

[76]  R. Holt,et al.  Synthesising Knowledge in Entrepreneurship Research: The Role of Systematic Literature Reviews , 2014 .

[77]  Per Davidsson,et al.  Entrepreneurship Programs and the Modern University , 2015 .

[78]  L. Pittaway,et al.  Student clubs: experiences in entrepreneurial learning , 2015 .

[79]  D. Shepherd Party On! A call for entrepreneurship research that is more interactive, activity based, cognitively hot, compassionate, and prosocial , 2015 .

[80]  Eberhard Auchter,et al.  10 Years of Evaluation Research Into Gaming Simulation for German Entrepreneurship and a New Study on Its Long-Term Effects , 2016 .

[81]  Maria Chiara Di Guardo,et al.  The theoretical foundations of entrepreneurship education: How co-citations are shaping the field , 2016 .

[82]  Helle Neergaard,et al.  The promise of entrepreneurship education: Reconceptualizing the individual–opportunity nexus as a conceptual framework for entrepreneurship education , 2016 .

[83]  A. Fayolle,et al.  In quest of legitimacy: The theoretical and methodological foundations of entrepreneurship education research , 2016 .

[84]  Jonathan Lean,et al.  Evaluating the impact of serious games: the effect of gaming on entrepreneurial intent , 2016, Inf. Technol. People.

[85]  D. Hoang FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , 2018 .