REVIEW OF LEARNING RESEARCH IN BUSINESS GAMING

The purpose of this review of learning research in business gaming is to clarify some of the existing incongruencies that exist in the literature. Rather than dealing with very dissimilar learning research studies, this writer has chosen to examine what he considers to be a main-stream of research thrust in business simulation games. Only articles which utilize definite criteria for the measurement of learning and professionally acceptable research techniques are included in the study. This necessarily eliminates articles dealing with such things as the evaluation of performance, attitudes, morale, organizational behavior, and other similar studies which may be of great interest in certain cases. No attempt has been made to choose articles which are favorable or unfavorable toward games, as will be obvious from the research quoted. Instead, articles that tend to lead one toward a general research methodology have been selected. These research studies are outlined in Table 1. In 1962, a classic experiment using the Harvard Business Game was performed by McKenney, comparing a gaming class with a non- gaming class. Both classes of ninety students were tested by having them prepare an analysis of a business case, graded on three planning concepts (6, pp. 115-116). The research design was professionally structured, utilizing an independent grader experienced in case analysis grading and a seven-point scale for each of the three concepts. The class utilizing gaming als