Southern Miss Management Students Excel at Business Simulation – Consistently

Tue, 08/30/2022 - 01:27pm | By: Van Arnold

Students completing management capstone courses in The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Leadership consistently rank in the top 100 worldwide in the Business Strategy Game. In fact, they often rank in the top 20.

Comparative metrics in the game include various firm performance outcomes such as earnings per share, return on average equity, and stock price.

The Business Strategy Game (BSG) is a PC-based learning tool. In it, teams of students collaborate to manage a fictional international athletic footwear company in direct, head-to-head competition with other class members. Decisions that these “managers” make affect the company’s success. This year alone, The Business Strategy Game has been used by nearly 50,000 students at more than 500 college/university campus locations.

Dr. Gregory Bradley, Associate Teaching Professor and a Distinguished Teaching Scholar in the School of Leadership, has been incorporating The Business Strategy Game in his curriculum since 2016.

“Some concepts in business are more effectively taught by having students employ critical thinking skills to solve real problems, said Bradley. “Moreover, students must learn to collaborate, come to some form of consensus, and find a way to divide the work. Because they receive weekly feedback on the outcome of their decisions, they can learn to improve their future decisions. This type of iterative learning is exceedingly difficult to achieve in a conventional classroom setting.”

If a student team scores in the Top 100, Bradley explains, the team is recognized throughout the platform.

“Teams are assigned scores based on how they are performing in the ‘market,’ noted Bradley. “Hence, student teams can be ranked on metrics such as overall score, return on equity, earnings per share, stock price, etc., and are compared to other student teams around the world. The BSG administrators do a really good job of recognizing outstanding performances by teams of students.

“Since 2016,” he continued, “our students have frequently finished in the Top 100, and many have finished in the Top 20 worldwide.” Bradley had student teams finish 1st in Overall Score worldwide in both Fall 2018 and Spring 2019.

Students seem to love the simulation game. “Because students receive immediate feedback on their performance and can adjust for improvement, a deeper learning can occur for those who are highly engaged in the process,” said Bradley. “Decisions made in the simulation emulate real-world outcomes and implications – but in a harmless environment. From my perspective, this type of training is invaluable.”

Bradley believes that Southern Miss teams excel “because we have outstanding and engaged students, a curriculum that is focused on real-world application, and faculty who are highly involved with students and have real-world business experience.”

“I am not surprised that our students excel in this simulation, given the experiential nature of the simulation, their commitment to learning, and the excellent instruction provided by Dr. Bradley,” said Dr. Heather Annulis, Director, School of Leadership.

The School of Leadership is housed within the College of Business and Economic Development at USM. To learn more about the management program offered by the School of Leadership as well as its other degree programs, visit https://www.usm.edu/leadership.