Undergraduate Business Courses Research Articles

Integrating Learning and Serious Game Design: The Development and Application of the Learning and Game Integration (LGI) Framework using the ‘Blackout’ Serious Game

Serious games are increasingly recognised as effective educational tools capable of simulating complex scenarios that traditional methods cannot replicate. This paper introduces the Learning and Game Integration (LGI) Framework, designed to seamlessly integrate educational content with interactive game design. Utilising the “Blackout” serious game, which simulates real world complex problem, this study demonstrates how the LGI Framework can be utilised as learning intervention to enhance learning by teaching Design Thinking to university students. The framework consists of four stages: Educational Content Integration, Theoretical Underpinning, Case Study Selection, and Game Design. The “Blackout” game enables students to engage with various stakeholder perspectives, deeply analyse problems, and develop innovative solutions under crisis conditions. Preliminary feedback from its implementation in an undergraduate business course (N=753) indicates increased student engagement and confidence in applying Design Thinking concepts. This paper contributes to the field of business education by presenting an innovative approach to teaching innovative problem-solving skills through serious games, emphasising the need for holistic educational frameworks that bridge theoretical learning with real-world application.

Breaking the WAVE and shattering stereotypes: addressing organizational change and team dynamics with female leaders

Research methodology The research consisted of a questionnaire and in-depth interview with the CEO. Secondary research was conducted to read through various articles and literature available on the organization. Relevant courses are organizational behavior/organization development/strategic management. Case overview/synopsis In a landscape traditionally dominated by male leadership, this case study highlights the compelling narrative of a new leader with an unconventional leadership style. This purpose of this case study aims to explore the change management challenges faced by Molade, CEO of WAVE, a leading vocational education social enterprise based in Lagos, Nigeria, as she grapples with the issue of organizational culture and gender bias and their impact on team dynamics while implementing a new strategy. Her leadership journey reflects not only personal triumphs but also the broader impact of diverse perspectives at the helm of organizational decision-making. Despite having over a decade of industry experience and being well-respected in her field, Molade is met with resistance and patronizing behavior from some of the existing team members who question her authority and decision-making abilities. The case discusses leadership challenges faced by Molade, a female leader, its negative implications on her performance and her ability to implement change within the organization. Ultimately, Molade’s perseverance and strategic thinking enabled her to successfully navigate her dilemma. Complexity academic level Undergraduate business course(s) which include organizational behavior, organization development and strategic management.

Examination of the psychological well-being of students during the coronavirus pandemic: The case of Hungarian economic universities

A long, familiar stage of life ends with graduation from secondary school. The closure of this phase can also be seen as a loss or mourning: saying goodbye to high school, parting with old friends, teachers, environment, etc. After entering the university, young people will be not only new students of higher education, but also new participants in the labor market, which means that they will have to satisfy both needs at the same time. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic complicates this situation. With this in mind, the purpose of this study is to understand the mental health status and problems of first-year students currently enrolled for three undergraduate business courses in Budapest. This research paper investigates whether the pressures, isolation, uncertainty, financial worries, loss of control, and moving back in with parents caused by the pandemic have had an impact on students’ mental health. This study used the EPOCH model. The EPOCH-H questionnaire was filled in by 1,719 first-year full-time students. Based on the results, a total of 8 main groups and its subgroups of factors were affected by the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic. These students will be workers in the future carrying these effects with them. According to the results, students’ mental health needs to be strengthened in typical educational processes, and maintaining and improving students’ mental health should be the focus of all higher education institutions in the future.

The Challenger’s Triumph: Battling a Tech Titan

The primary purpose of this case is to promote discussion related to effective human resource management practices in undergraduate business courses. This business case revolves around the issues of employment discrimination, retaliation, and gender inequality. In 2020, 38-year-old employee Chelsey Glasson sued Google, alleging that she and others encountered discrimination while pregnant. After facing retaliation from the company, Glasson decided to bring the issue to light. She claimed that managers would give lower performance scores to employees who notified the company they were pregnant, stating that this step in the employee’s life would hinder their performance towards the company.

Bon voyage: a vacation from food wastage

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: to use advanced frameworks and tools to convey complex ideas related to strategy and sustainable business practices; apply relevant concepts and theories of corporate social responsibility and governance to a practical situation while making decisions; demonstrate understanding of the importance of stakeholders when developing socially responsible thinking; and analyze the different strengths and weaknesses of the organization when making a decision that would affect the company strategy. Case overview/synopsis Claire Humphry was the General Manager at the renowned The Nacre Hotel in Penang, Malaysia. Claire had a very busy job as she had many people who reported to her, and the hotel was always full of guests. One of the things Claire also managed was the restaurant OceanSound that was owned and operated by her hotel. OceanSound was a very thematic restaurant that specialized in making sculptures of food for special events. On the New Year’s Day in 2023, Claire came to work ready to tackle what was sure to be a long and busy day. However, Claire had not anticipated exactly how taxing the day would end up being. During Claire’s talks with her colleagues throughout the day, her conversation with her friend, the head chef of OceanSound, Poh, would nag at her head for the rest of the day based on the events that followed. The New Year’s special sculpture at OceanSound was to be a large rabbit made of cake to commemorate 2023 being the year of the rabbit according to Chinese zodiac. This is usually kept secret until the sculpture is revealed; but somehow this information had been leaked. This led to The Nacre Hotel and OceanSound being in the spotlight for bad reasons as this sparked a debate online regarding food wastage. This escalated quickly and even led to a famous food influencer commenting on this using specifically The Nacre’s name. Activists also quickly emerged in front of the hotel to protest the creation of sculptures and the food wastage in Malaysian hospitality industry, seeking to make an example out of The Nacre Hotel. The online criticism died down and was eventually replaced by praise for the sculpture. The activists were also eventually asked by the hotel security to leave, which led to the rest of the day to go as expected for a New Year’s Day at The Nacre. However, Claire’s nagging suspicion that they were not out of the woods led her to start looking into food wastage in the hospitality industry in Malaysia to educate herself and bring it up in a future meeting. Two days after this incident, on January 3, 2023, Claire found The Nacre Hotel posted on the newspaper headlines, dissecting the food wastage associated with the hotel now. After getting an urgent phone call from the Regional Manager, who was pressured by the board and shareholders, Claire decided the time to address this issue could not be delayed any longer. She wrote an email to her strategy team to come up with some ideas for possible solutions to the issue and to present them in a group meeting within a week’s time. At the conclusion of the meeting, Claire was contemplating about the decision that she had to make if she wanted The Nacre Hotel to continue operating successfully in Malaysia’s hospitality industry. Complexity academic level The main theoretical concepts illustrated in the case include corporate governance approaches, types of corporate social responsibility, stakeholders’ prioritization, organizational culture, organizational structure, industry analysis and strategic choices. Therefore, this case study can be used in a upper-level undergraduate business courses in the field of Strategic Management and Corporate Social Responsibility. The case study can be successfully used in a capstone course on Business Policy and Strategy, when tackling the concepts of corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability strategy and corporate governance. Under this scenario, the usage of conceptual frameworks from Chapters 2 and 3 of the textbook titled “Concepts in Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability” by Wheelen and Hunger would be required. This case study can also be successfully applied to MBA level courses on Strategic Management in a Globalized World. In this case, the latest edition of the textbook titled “Exploring Strategy” by Whittington et al., could be used (particularly, the material from Chapters 2–9, 11, 14 and 15). Additionally, the case could also be used in courses related to Tourism and Hospitality, especially in schools which have specialized programs in this field. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CCS 12: Tourism and Hospitality.

Instruments to assess students’ critical thinking—A qualitative approach

ABSTRACTCritical thinking (CT) skills are essential to academic and professional success. Instruments to assess CT often rely on multiple‐choice formats with inherent problems. This research presents two instruments for assessing CT, an essay and open‐ended group‐discussion format, which were implemented in an undergraduate business course at a large public university. The topics were intentionally chosen to be digitally‐related (internet access and social media) since they raise complex issues, are applicable in many disciplines, and students are avid users, thereby making these instruments relevant, multidisciplinary, engaging, and multifaceted. These instruments may be adapted to enable educators to effectively assess undergraduate students’ ability to think critically. Qualitative analysis of the verbatim data with NVivo helps demonstrate the instruments’ efficacy in assessing CT, with (1) high‐quality responses receiving high grades, and (2) overarching themes identified by content analysis, that coalesce into the three dimensions of social justice theory (distributive, procedural, and interactional), thus illustrating students’ consideration of complex fairness norms and societal needs. Excerpts of student responses are provided as illustrations of the indicators/evidence of critical thinking. Educators can use these instruments to first assess students’ CT skills, and then devise targeted interventions to improve the quality of students’ thought processes.

Enhancing argumentative writing with automated feedback and social comparison nudging

The advantages offered by natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning enable students to receive automated feedback on their argumentation skills, independent of educator, time, and location. Although there is a growing amount of literature on formative argumentation feedback, empirical evidence on the effects of adaptive feedback mechanisms and novel NLP approaches to enhance argumentative writing remains scarce. To help fill this gap, the aim of the present study is to investigate whether automated feedback and social comparison nudging enable students to internalize and improve logical argumentation writing abilities in an undergraduate business course. We conducted a mixed-methods study to investigate the impact of argumentative writing on 71 students in a field experiment. Students in treatment group 1 completed their assignment while receiving automated feedback, whereas students in treatment group 2 completed the same assignment while receiving automated feedback with a social comparison nudge that indicated how other students performed on the same assignment. Students in the control group received generalized feedback based on rules of syntax. We found that participants who received automated argumentation feedback with a social comparison nudge wrote more convincing texts with higher-quality argumentation compared to the two benchmark groups (p < 0.05). The measured self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, and qualitative data provide valuable insights that help explain this effect. The results suggest that embedding automated feedback in combination with social comparison nudges enables students to increase their argumentative writing skills by triggering psychological processes. Receiving only automated feedback in the form of in-text argumentative highlighting without any further guidance appears not to significantly influence students’ writing abilities when compared to syntactic feedback.

A pinch of poppy seeds and a drop of secrecy

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: use advanced frameworks and tools to convey complex ideas related to corporate social responsibility and ethics; apply relevant concepts and theories of ethics and corporate governance to a practical situation while making decisions; demonstrate understanding of the importance of stakeholders when developing socially responsible thinking; and analyze ethical and legal conflicts that need to be considered by employees in situations of whistleblowing. Case overview/synopsis Sara Khan was a Pakistani-American who had moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2015 to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in accounting. After graduation, she started working for a baked products manufacturer, Dough Fresh, which was a business unit of Dubai-based Fresh Foods Co. Three years later, she enjoyed her work in the company that embraced strong ethical values and socially responsible practices. She was recently given the task of delivering a financial statements’, investment projections’ and cost-cutting presentation to the senior management of Dough Fresh. Her performance at completing this task was of critical importance for her obtaining the eagerly awaited promotion to the senior accountant position. One day, while Sara was looking through some files to update the financial statements’ records, she came across a deleted purchase order of poppy seeds that amounted to AED 680,000. While poppy seeds were widely used as ingredients in baked products in other countries, they were illegal in the UAE. After approaching her colleague from the purchasing department, she realized that the purchasing manager, who was the grandson of the chairman, was closely involved in the matter. Moreover, it appeared that poppy seeds were used unwashed, which triggered deleterious health consequences and made them highly dangerous to consume. As Sara spent more time researching about poppy seeds and whistleblowing laws in the UAE, she questioned whether she should divulge this information or keep it for herself. Making this decision was extremely challenging. Because the UAE laws regarding whistleblowing were not comprehensive and constantly evolving, she was not certain whether her identity and reputation would be protected in case she decided to blow the whistle. Even more, she worried immensely about the prospect of her colleagues losing their jobs if this information became public, as many of them needed the money to support their families back home and to finance expensive health-related treatments of their relatives. At the same time, she was also aware that if poppy seeds were consumed by people unknowingly, this could lead to serious and even fatal health consequences. All things considered, Sara was caught between deciding what was the right thing to do. Complexity academic level This case study can be used in a higher level undergraduate business course on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

Do International Business Students Who Are Studying in Australia Have Similar Academic Outcomes? A Comparison of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students

The paper explores the characteristics of business students studying in Australia. A total of 1907 students (1033 undergraduate and 874 postgraduate students) are included in the study between 2012 and 2016. These students are either from a higher education (tertiary) private provider of undergraduate business courses or from one of the Australian universities studying at the postgraduate level. The paper attempts to examine if there are similarities in undergraduate and postgraduate business student outcomes that could be attributed to country of origin and gender. The paper argues that the human capital pursuit among international business students studying in Australia is similar due to the linkages between immigration, labor market and education policies. These linkages might have facilitated the perceived risk-return relationship of studying in Australia and as a result led to attracting similar (international) students studying at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Ordinary least squares (OLS) models’ results suggest that gender and country of origin are important in predicting success. In particular, being female is positively related to academic success and certain student groups dominate the international students’ landscape in Australia.

Constructing Core-Course In-class Sessions From Students’ Presubmitted Questions

Student interactivity and engagement are fundamental to creating effective student-centered learning. In core undergraduate business courses that introduce students to a business discipline, faculty typically determine the content and student engagement entails guided activities like case analyses, personality selfassessments, and role-playing. This meta-essay details a novel pedagogical approach in which instructors use students’ graded, presubmitted questions to customize lectures and discussions, thereby enhancing student interest. This approach provides incentives missing from other question-centric in-class methods and eliminates discomfort among students apprehensive about asking spontaneous questions in an open forum. Moreover, it conforms to the increasingly popular flipped classroom and is suitable for many non-quantitative and non-skills-centric undergraduate courses.

Escape room: using a simple text-based game to promote business undergraduates’ digital self-reliance

This case study aims to highlight the ease of use and effectiveness of an escape room game by describing how it was implemented in an undergraduate business course. The case study demonstrates the simplicity of a straightforward text-based game and how this was used in a large course of online students. Our case study aims to present our experience of implementing the escape room game from a practical perspective. We add to our narrative some descriptive statistics from a student survey conducted after the game. The case study builds on existing work in this field by extending its use beyond small face-to-face sessions to a technique suitable for far larger classes in an online format.

Developing an Undergraduate Business Course Using Open Educational Resources

There are growing concerns about the affordability and accessibility of post-secondary education. This has resulted in increased attention to the inclusion of open educational resources (OERs) as course materials rather than commercial course resources. OERs are mostly cost-neutral for students. In this research, an elective course for business students was developed using only OERs. To assist with the selection of OERs to be included in this course, an OER evaluation tool available online was used. Resources that were considered and were evaluated using the tool included traditional OERs (fully open), those in the public domain (unrestricted by licensing), and resources that are publicly available for educational purposes. An important contribution of this research is the extension of the definition of OERs to include publicly available resources. This paper reports on the results of this process and students’ perceptions about the inclusion of OERs in their course. Recommendations for further research and for practice are shared.

Connecting teacher and student assessment literacy with self-evaluation and peer feedback

Teachers’ feedback literacy is a focus of increasing attention in higher education. It may be framed through intentional design decisions, inter-relational aspects of engagement and pragmatic considerations of enacted curricula. Thus, teachers’ feedback literacy is connected to both the enacted curriculum and students’ relationship to feedback. How these connections take shape in particular approaches to the curriculum, affecting students’ roles in feedback and evaluation is not as well-understood. This paper presents findings from an intervention aimed at developing students’ peer feedback and self-evaluation skills in an undergraduate business course. Peer feedback and self-evaluation are increasingly common modes of engaging students as active participants in feedback and evaluation processes. It is therefore worthwhile to understand the ways in which these processes affect and link teacher and student feedback literacy. Data was analysed from a 14-week course aimed at developing students’ competencies in self-evaluation, peer feedback and teamwork. Results are presented and discussed according to three major areas: how teacher’s feedback on student engagement with feedback served as affective ‘meta’ scaffolding, the trajectory of students’ growth in feedback literate self-evaluation, and the relationship of feedback literacy to trajectory of growth in teamwork competencies. The paper concludes with suggestions for further, crossdisciplinarity research.

Transforming student career paths into a project to increase engagement in a project management course

An engaging assignment connecting course curriculum to student career paths was created for an undergraduate business (project management) course. The assignment required students to turn either their job search or career path into a project. Learning goals, objectives, and outcomes were developed for academic, personal, and professional growth areas. Comments collected after completion demonstrated the ability of the project to connect with the students. Many students perceived the assignment as useful and even life-changing. Incorporating more business assignments that connect course material with the career path of students has the potential to increase student engagement and content knowledge.

Learning Through Play: Developing and Customizing Business Games

Business games are an effective and popular method in business education. They provide a model of workplace reality and a safe space to test possible courses of action. However, offered business games usually depict specific contexts and tasks that do not fit with the learning objectives or foci of a course. Therefore, business games research is reviewed to identify major factors that contribute to the success of business games. The focus is put on affordable and easy-to-implement face-to-face business games. An exemplary customized business game is introduced. Data of its evaluation in an undergraduate business course are analyzed and discussed.

An Examination of Undergraduate Student Participation Within an Interdisciplinary Business Course

Criticisms of business courses include a lack of relevancy and theoretical application. Using interdisciplinary business courses resolve such issues. Accordingly, an undergraduate business course on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) combined marketing activities within a service learning project. Student participation within three deliverables is discussed. The first, a CSR Marketing Analysis Report to guide students in evaluating an organization’s marketing initiatives. The second, a CSR Marketing Action Plan to identify marketing initiatives for completion. The third, a Final Presentation and a Reflection Paper. Additionally, this paper summarizes the completed marketing projects and synthesizes benefits experienced by students and their selected organizations.

Tutor and international student perspectives on an action research project: use of a business strategy simulation with mixed nationality cohorts

Purpose This study aims to present the results of a curriculum design intervention, which was undertaken to address the inhibitors and enablers facing international (mainly Chinese) students on a capstone undergraduate strategic management module at a UK university business school. Design/methodology/approach Using an action research approach, the pre-intervention phase identified two main concerns: low levels of student engagement and avoidance of generic academic and language support. The module was subsequently redesigned around a group-based strategic business simulation (requiring collaborative participation of all students), with embedded language and academic support, plus the involvement of bilingual teaching staff. Findings Post-intervention results from the four-year study indicated enhanced academic engagement of international students and a narrowing of the performance (grade) gap between domestic and international students. Practical implications Overall findings should provide strong support for the inclusion of active learning pedagogies in undergraduate business course deliveries, also complementing educational literature that advocates the effectiveness of constructivist pedagogies in mixed-nationality classrooms. Originality/value This study exemplifies a form of participatory action research. The juxtaposition of comments from support and specialist tutors, along with those of students, highlights the validity of views from each stakeholder group.

What learning tools do students prefer? An assessment of undergraduate business courses

Universities strive to acquire resources to improve learning outcomes for students. This paper describes technology introduced in core undergraduate business classes and students’ assessment of their value. Despite their widespread use, student enthusiasm for them was tepid. It also gauges student preferences for pedagogical methods and finds the preferred method was power point lectures, independent of the type of the course. Homework ranked second for quantitative classes, while in-class discussions ranked second for qualitative classes.

Preparing Business Students for a Distributed Workforce and Global Business Environment: Gaining Virtual Leadership Skills in an Authentic Context

There is an increased demand for a skilled workforce that is prepared for work in today’s digital economy, which is often done in virtual teams. Thus, while many students today have little or no experience working in this mode, they are often placed in virtual teams early in their careers. We argue that that if students have the opportunity to acquire virtual leadership skills in an authentic setting in their undergraduate program, they will be more prepared when they are placed in virtual teams and virtual leadership roles in the workplace. An instructional strategy was implemented in a large online undergraduate business course to provide students with the experience of working in virtual teams in an authentic setting and the findings of the study highlight the importance of organization, technology management, communication, managing student perceptions, and coaching when using this strategy to teach virtual leadership and virtual team skills.

The impact of financial literacy on negotiation behavior

This research investigates the role of financial literacy on initiating and achieving a favorable negotiation outcome in an employment context. With a goal of improving long-term financial well-being, extant research examines whether increasing a person's understanding of basic financial concepts (“financial literacy”) improves his/her financial decision-making. The current research proposes broader effects of financial literacy via negotiation behavior. We follow prior research to measure financial literacy both objectively (as the accurate assessment of basic financial concepts, “financial knowledge”) and subjectively (as confidence in the application of basic financial skills and concepts, “financial confidence”). In a series of studies engaging students from undergraduate business courses and adults recruited from an online crowdsourcing service, this research examines the relationship between these measures of financial literacy and (a) the likelihood of initiating a negotiation and (b) the likely outcome from a negotiation, if initiated. Results suggest that financial confidence impacts participants’ willingness to engage in negotiation, while financial knowledge impacts the level of participants’ first offer. These findings suggest financial literacy has important implications for career advancement and compensation, as well as the successful management of interpersonal communications, even in fields not traditionally thought of as focusing on numerical reasoning skills.