WRITING YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
• The Business Strategy Game (BSG) is a simulation 2023 answers.
• The assessment requires your active participation in order to be awarded a grade.
• This assessment is a group activity.
• Completing the Business Strategy Game provides a group mark that is recorded as the interim assessment.
• The final assessment is an individual report that assesses the progression and outcome of the Business Strategy Game.
SUBMITTING YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
• Completing the group simulation is equivalent to ‘submitting’ this assignment.
• The BSG will generate scores known as ‘Investor Expectation Score’, which is determined by group performance, and constitutes assessment grades.
• The overall group grade for the interim assessment is automatically generated by the Business Game Simulation itself, based on student participation, decision-making skills and performance.
• Please refer to the Academic Regulations, or the Student Handbook for full details
Introduction
The Business Strategy Game (BSG) is a web-based total enterprise simulation that can be accessed 24-7 from any computer with an internet connection. The game is strategic in nature and is based upon a global business engaged in the manufacture and sale of athletic footwear. Student teams (or companies) compete against each other for a predetermined pattern of market demand. Your Lecturer is responsible for overseeing the operation of the game and establishes many of the externalities which will shape company decision-making (such as exchange rates, material prices and shipping costs).
The game requires the input of yearly business decisions (one week representing one year), such as volumes of goods to manufacture, shipment volumes, pricing levels and advertising spend. These decisions are collectively processed by group members on an on-line server programme, and the game then rolls on to another year’s play. Scores based on a number of performance metrics (for example, profit, market share, capitalisation, sales volume) are determined, resulting in the teams moving up or down a league table.
You are participating in the business simulation, where you are expected to create/make decisions on a weekly basis, for a firm (your group) within an industry (your class). The size of the group membership will depend on the actual number of participants in the game).
TASK
You are required to form a group with other classmates and assume the role of senior managers. You will play six rounds of the strategy simulation, each round representing one year.
In each year, your group is expected to make business decisions in order to meet a number of performance indices, known as ‘investor expectations’. As a group you are expected to reflect on operational strategies implemented in each year and the corresponding outcomes, learning from these, in order to formulate wiser and better strategies in the subsequent year. This should continue until all six rounds of the strategy simulation have been completed.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
PARTICIPATION PHASE
There will be a briefing and debriefing session before and after each round of the simulation.
Marking Guide
• The BSG assesses your decision-making efficacy during your participation in the simulation.
• The overall group score is automatically generated by the BSG itself.
• The overall grade is based on the group’s Investor Expectation Score translated to a final grade scaled to a student mark. A scale chart is available on the VLE. This grade, with a 50% weighting, will then contribute to your final overall grade.
NB. In addition to the two formal summative assessments, there are formative assessments at every round of decisions, which will enable you to learn from both errors and positive experiences in your decision making.
This action learning approach is important in equipping students with practical, applied skills in management decision making, as well as promoting deeper learning.
If you abstain from making decisions and proceed to save the session, in two or more of the decision rounds, you will be excluded from the simulation. You will thus be unable to participate further and you will be awarded a grade of zero, irrespective of the score on the scoreboard.
