Effects of Participation in a Simulation Game on Marketing Students’ Numeracy and Financial Skills

Abstract

The need to endow marketing graduates with skills relevant to employability grows ever more important. Marketing math and elementary financial understanding are essential employability skills, particularly given the contemporary emphasis on marketing metrics, but the evidence is that marketing graduates are often relatively weak in such skills. This article suggests that one educational strategy to improve numeracy and financial skills may be through the use of a marketing simulation game. Through the simulation game, students are exposed to marketing calculations and financial data in an engaging context that simulates the real world. It is hypothesized that marketing students' numeracy and financial skills, and their self-efficacy with respect to marketing calculations, will improve following participation in a simulation game where numerical and financial analysis are necessary activities. Using a quasi-experimental research design, it is found that there are substantial and significant improvements in numerical and financial performance after participating in a simulation game, but that there is no improvement (and possibly a small decline) in self-efficacy related to these tasks. Marketing educators are advised that a marketing simulation game is a viable option to consider when seeking to improve students' numeracy and financial skills.

Simulation games in business and marketing education: How educators assess student learning from simulations

“…In the context of a simulation, for example, students might have quite different levels of knowledge and understanding of the concepts that underlie the game and international students may struggle with language and terminology. Other students may have less prior training or skill in the financial and numerical concepts that could help them interpret results (see for example Brennan & Vos, 2013). And, all of these factors could also affect collaboration and group work.…”

Business Development Jobs: What Scaling the Career Ladder Entails

“…Researchers have tested different types of teaching approaches to use in class to favor the attainment of educational objectives that can serve graduates throughout their careers (e.g., Brennan & Vos, 2013;McCorkle et al, 1999 Vol. 7, No.…”

Strategic Tangle

“…1 The word game invokes images and feelings of a challenge, a reward or excitement of the unknown. Many studies agree on superior results in game-based groups compared to case-based groups (Brennan & Vos, 2013;Rana & Dwivedi, 2015;Wolfe & Guth, 1975). Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2000) suggest that knowledge is useful when contextualized and games pose business challenges in contexts.…”