A suite for developing and using business games: Supporting supply chain business games in a distributed context

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(1)A suite for developing and using business games.

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(3) A suite for developing and using business games Supporting supply chain business games in a distributed context. Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Technische Universiteit Delft, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. ir. J.T. Fokkema, voorzitter van het College voor Promoties, in het openbaar te verdedigen op dinsdag 6 november 2007 om 12.30 uur. door Stijn-Pieter Antonius VAN HOUTEN bestuurskundig ingenieur geboren te Breda..

(4) Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door de promotoren:. Prof. dr. H.G. Sol Prof. dr. ir. A. Verbraeck. Samenstelling promotiecommissie:. Rector Magnificus, voorzitter Prof. dr. H.G. Sol, Technische Universiteit Delft, promotor Prof. dr. ir. A. Verbraeck, Technische Universiteit Delft, promotor Prof. dr. S. Boyson, University of Maryland, USA Prof. dr. T. Corsi, University of Maryland, USA Prof. dr. ir. J.G.A.J. van der Vorst, Wageningen Universiteit Prof. dr. W. Veen, Technische Universiteit Delft dr. I.S. Mayer, Technische Universiteit Delft. CIP-GEGEVENS KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK, Den Haag van Houten, Stijn-Pieter Antonius A suite for developing and using business games/ Stijn-Pieter Antonius van Houten - [S.l. : s.n.]. Proefschrift Delft. - Met Index, lit. opg., Nederlandse samenvatting ISBN-10: 90-5638-179-2 ISBN-13: 978-90-5638-179-0 NUR 950 Trefw.: business games, supply chain management, development, usage.. Cover illustration: Roy T.H. Chin Printing: Copie Sjop, Delft, The Netherlands - http://www.copie-sjop.nl English editor: Miranda Aldham-Breary M.Sc. P.G.C.E.. c Copyright 2007 by S.P.A. van Houten All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this thesis may be copied or sold without the written permission of the author..

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(6) The applications presented in this book have been included for their instructional value. They have been tested with care but are not guaranteed for any particular purpose. The author does not offer any warranties or representations, nor does he accept any liabilities with respect to them..

(7) Contents 1. Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Supporting managers in decision making 1.3 Simulation as a method of inquiry 1.4 Influence of IT on business games 1.5 Effectiveness of developing and using business games 1.6 Focus on business games for supply chain management 1.7 A suite of integrated services for developing and using business games 1.7.1 Research question 1.8 Research approach 1.8.1 Philosophy 1.8.2 Strategy 1.8.3 Instruments 1.9 Research Outline. 1 1 2 4 6 7 8 12 14 14 14 15 17 18. 2. Introduction to developing and using business games 2.1 Actors involved when developing and using a business game 2.2 Activities involved when developing and using a business game 2.3 Computer-supported business games 2.4 An architecture for computer-supported business games 2.4.1 A representational service 2.4.2 A timing service 2.4.3 A hosting service 2.4.4 A scoring service 2.4.5 Multi-tier architectures 2.5 Service oriented computing for business games 2.5.1 Service oriented architectures 2.5.2 Options for developing services 2.6 Summary. 19 19 21 25 26 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 34 35.

(8) 3. Business gaming in practice: designing the model for the Distributor Game 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Context formulation 3.3 Practical boundaries for the Distributor Game 3.4 Conceptualising the supply chain for the Distributor Game 3.4.1 Conceptualisation of supply chain actors 3.4.2 Conceptualisation of communication processes 3.4.3 Conceptualisation of business logic 3.5 Specifying the conceptual model of the Distributor Game 3.5.1 Specification of the supply chain for the Distributor Game 3.5.2 Specification of the experiment and scenario for the Distributor Game 3.5.3 Specification of player interaction 3.6 Requirements for our suite based on the Distributor Game model 3.6.1 Usefulness 3.6.2 Usability 3.6.3 Usage 4. Services to instantiate and play the Distributor Game 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Software requirements for implementing the services 4.3 Overview of the suite and its services to support game instantiation and game play 4.4 Game-timing service 4.5 Game-interaction service 4.5.1 Supporting interaction between user applications and a game model 4.5.2 Supporting distributed, Internet-mediated, interaction 4.6 Game-scenario service 4.7 Game-actor and supplychain specification services 4.8 Supplychain-game-scoring service 4.9 Supplychain-game-instantiation service 4.10 Supplychain-game-presentation service 4.11 Player application 4.12 Facilitator application 4.13 Content management system 4.14 Summary. 37 37 38 41 42 44 46 50 51 51 56 58 59 61 62 63 65 65 66 66 68 70 71 73 76 81 82 82 83 85 88 91 92.

(9) 5. Testing and using the Distributor Game 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Verification of the Distributor Game 5.3 Testing the Distributor Game implementation 5.3.1 Reliability testing and optimization of our implementation 5.3.2 Scalability testing in a distributed, Internet-mediated setting 5.3.3 Conclusions 5.4 Validation of the Distributor Game 5.5 Using the Distributor Game 5.5.1 Playing the Distributor Game in a global setting 5.6 Effectiveness of the Distributor Game 5.6.1 Usage of the Distributor Game 5.6.2 Usefulness and usability of the Distributor Game 5.6.3 Conclusions 5.7 Summary. 95 95 96 96 97 101 106 107 107 110 113 114 114 128 129. 6. A suite for developing and using business games 6.1 Introduction 6.2 A meta-model for developing and using business games 6.2.1 Entities of the game family layer 6.2.2 Entities of the game layer 6.2.3 Entities of the game instance layer 6.2.4 Entities of the game evaluation layer 6.3 A web-enabled database to support game development and usage 6.3.1 Web-enabled usage of the database 6.4 Overview of a suite to support development and usage of business games 6.5 Supporting game conceptualisation 6.6 Supporting game development 6.6.1 Supporting the specification of supply chain models 6.6.2 Supporting the specification of experiments and scenarios 6.7 Supporting game instantiation 6.8 Supporting game evaluation 6.9 Summary. 131 131 132 134 136 136 137 137 139. 7. Testing the suite for developing and using business games 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Redeveloping and using the Distributor Game 7.2.1 Conceptualisation of the Distributor Game model 7.2.2 Specification of the Distributor Game model 7.2.3 Finalizing and instantiating the Distributor Game. 153 153 154 154 157 158. 140 141 145 146 146 147 150 152.

(10) 7.3. 7.4. 7.5 7.6. 7.2.4 Using the Distributor Game 7.2.5 Conclusions on redeveloping and using the Distributor Game Developing and using the Erasmus Distributor Game 7.3.1 Specification of the Erasmus Distributor Game model 7.3.2 Validation of the Erasmus Distributor Game 7.3.3 Using the Erasmus Distributor Game 7.3.4 Evaluating the Erasmus Distributor Game 7.3.5 Conclusions on developing and using the Erasmus Distributor Game Developing the European Beer Game 7.4.1 Conceptualisation of the European Beer Game 7.4.2 Specification of the European Beer Game 7.4.3 Validation of the European Beer Game 7.4.4 Potential usage of the European Beer Game 7.4.5 Conclusions on developing the European Beer Game Expert evaluation of our suite Conclusions regarding the effectiveness of our suite. 8. Epilogue 8.1 A review of research questions 8.2 Generalisation of findings 8.3 Recommendations for further research. Appendices. 159 159 159 160 161 161 162 167 168 169 170 173 175 176 177 178 181 181 184 186. 189. A. Game Animator. 191. B. Facilitator Client Side Interaction Layer. 193. C. Facilitator User Interaction Layer. 197. D. Instantiating a game. 199. E. Facilitator User Interaction Layer Interface. 201. F. Remote Event Producer Proxy. 205. G. Remote Event Listener Proxy. 211. H. Distributor Game questionnaire and results. 215. I. Key decisions for the Distributor Game. 263.

(11) J. Distributor Game strategy form. 267. K. Guidelines for interpreting the strategy form results. 271. L. Results after interpretation of the filled in strategy forms. 273. M.Teachers’ opinions regarding the learning effectiveness of the Distributor Game 285 N. Teachers’ opinions regarding the changes in behavior of players after playing the Distributor Game 289. Bibliography. 291. Index Author index Subject index. 305 309. Summary. 313. Samenvatting. 317.

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(13) 1. SUPPORTING MANAGERS FOR TODAY’S MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES USING BUSINESS GAMES 1.1 Introduction Managing today’s multi-actor systems, such as supply chains with actors such as suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, is becoming an increasingly challenging task given developments in the markets, most prominently globalization, and in technology, with the Internet. Today’s managers are faced with increasing competition and globalization in an ever increasingly complex and dynamic system. An example of such a system is a multi-actor, ‘Sense-and-Respond’ organisation (Haeckel, 1999), which is an organization that can rapidly adapt to changing economic demands or other, external, factors. Factors such as increasing competition and globalization influence the ability of a manager to manage in an effective, efficient and responsible way. Multiple tools exist to support managers in gaining more insight into these kinds of systems, such as simulation models or case-studies. Business games are another tool that can be used to support managers. Business games may be used for a variety of purposes, such as creating awareness of the complexity and dynamics of the systems that the business games’ players are part of, learning and training and to support the exploration of a variety of strategies before choosing one. Business games can be used to prepare managers for the challenges they will face in the decision making arena. Summers (2004) states that new business practices increase the demand for new types of business games. With respect to the development of business games, trends can be observed that lead to more complex and dynamic games with the goal to reflect real-world systems better (Chiesl, 1990; Gold and Pray, 2001; Lainema and Makkonen, 2003). With respect to business game usage, the Internet, as a means to support distributed usage, is almost taken for granted (Aldrich, 2004). In this research we will argue that our challenge is to develop a suite of integrated software services to support the development and usage of computer supported distributed business games. This suite should support the translation of real-world systems into business games, and support facilitators and players using these business games. As will become apparent throughout this work, we support the idea that the challenge is to get the complexity and dynamics of today’s real-world.

(14) systems, and their management challenges, into the minds of managers using business games. Supporting these managers might e.g. be accomplished by enhancing the development of a range of business games ‘on the fly’, where managers might explore a variety of strategies under changing conditions in terms of scenarios, business logic and the structure of the systems under investigation. We discuss how managers can be supported in their decision making in section 1.2. Simulation is introduced as the method of inquiry that forms the starting point for the development and usage of business games in section 1.3. We describe the influence of IT on business games in section 1.4, and we describe a framework for the effectiveness of developing and using these games in section 1.5. We discuss supply chain management in section 1.6, including its societal relevance and the management challenges it presents, as the application domain for our business games. The challenge dealt with in this research is discussed in section 1.7. We conclude this chapter with an outline of our research strategy.. 1.2 Supporting managers in decision making Decision making in multi-actor systems is far from trivial. Decision makers have to deal with the complexity of a system, its dynamics and the (relative) unpredictability of the effects of any decisions they make. A system here is defined as a part of the world which we choose to regard as a whole, separated from the rest of the world during some period of consideration, a whole which we choose to consider as containing a collection of components, each characterized by a selected set of associated data items and patterns, and by actions which may involve the system and other components (Holbaek-Hansen, 1975). Consider the case where a market is supplied by only a few producers. In such a market, the notion of profit maximization is ill-structured. A problem is defined as ill-structured when its structure lacks definition in some respect (Simon, 1973). This leads to the notion that each decision maker, e.g. a manager, depends on the decisions made by the other decision makers; no decision maker can choose without making assumptions about how other actors will make their choices. After each decision that is made, the problem of profit maximization should be redefined, making it ill-structured (Simon, 1973). Decision making as such often becomes the outcome of appropriate deliberation; the behavior of the decision makers is said to be procedurally rational, and decisions are a result of choices that are based on satisfaction instead of optimization (Simon, 1976). A typical example occurs when a decision maker, e.g. a customer in a supply chain, receives a sequence of offers, and makes the choice to accept the current best offer before the next one is received. In such a case, the customer reaches a level of acceptance or satisfaction. 2.

(15) Supporting decision makers via the creation of awareness, or a sense of urgency, training, learning and exploration is considered to be a non-programmed technique for decision making (Simon, 1977). The focus is on solving ill-structured problems using heuristic problem solving techniques. Heuristic problem solving allows decision makers to learn by discovering things themselves, i.e. learning from their own experiences. Gorry and Morton (1971) use the terms structured and unstructured, later on called ill-structured, instead of programmed and non-programmed when discussing decision making techniques. According to Keen and Morton (1978), the systems that support managers for ill-structured problems answer “what-if” questions: “What would be the impact on production schedules if we were to double sales in the month of December?”. In table 1.1 we illustrate the decision making activities that are present on this ‘management-level’ (Laudon and Laudon, 2000). We use this table to provide us with a notion for the decision making activities that we want to support with our business games. Gorry and Morton (1989) note that enrichment, especially in these decision making activities, emphasizes the amount and diversity of knowledge that is relevant for the problems managers are facing. Hence, one of our business games could focus on e.g. inventory control and pricing/profitability analysis.. Sales management Sales region analysis. Management-Level Decision Making Activities Inventory Annual bud- Capital investment control geting analysis Production Cost analysis Pricing/profitability scheduling analysis. Relocation analysis Contract cost analysis. Tab. 1.1: Overview of categories of management decisions, based on Laudon and Laudon (2000).. In his taxonomy of decision support systems, Alter (1980) distinguishes a decision support system that estimates the consequences of proposed decisions as the preferred type for this kind of management activities. Such a decision support system focuses on the usage of representational models, which estimate the consequences of actions on the basis of models that are partially non-definitional. This means that these models are partially constructed with relationships that estimate the consequences of various actions, conditions or relationships. These estimates are made based on the input (decisions) given by the users (mainly managers) of the models. Alter (1980) recommends simulation as an implementation for this type of decision support systems. These models could either be used periodically, as part of an ongoing process, or they could be used as a tool for analyses not planned in advance. Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 3.

(16) The challenge now becomes to support managers, with the use of business games, in decision making by providing better insight into the complexity and dynamics of today’s systems and consequences of the decisions they make. This kind of decision making is often ill-structured given the type of systems under investigation. In the next section, we will introduce simulation as the starting point for the usage of business games.. 1.3 Simulation as a method of inquiry A systems view of problem solving is shown in figure 1.1. The arrows in figure 1.1 are used to emphasize the different activities.. ep. tio. ca. tu. ifi. al. ec. isa. sp. tio n. conceptual model. nc co. correspondence check. empirical model. n. so. tio. lu. ta. tio. n. en. em. fin. pl. im. di ng. perceived problem. n. consistency check. solution. Fig. 1.1: A systems view of problem solving (Mitroff, 1974). The four stages of the process of problem solving are (1) the perceived problem, (2) the conceptual model, in which the variables that will be used to specify the nature of the problem in broad terms, are defined, (3) the empirical model in which the conceptual model in terms of the system under investigation is specified, and (4) the chosen solution. Churchman (1971) presents five philosophers and describes how each philosopher would design inquiring systems to understand the relations in systems under investigation. Following Churchman, the inquiring systems are listed on the next page. 4.

(17) • Leibnitzian in which a purely formal, deductive philosophy is reflected. • Lockean in which an experiential, inductive and empirical philosophy is reflected. • Kantian in which both formal and empirical philosophies are reflected. The Kantian inquiring system reconciles the Leibnitzian and Lockean inquiring systems. • Hegelian in which a synthetic philosophy is reflected. Using a Hegelian inquiring system researchers aim to invoke the strongest possible conflict on any issue. • Singerian in which a synthetic, interdisciplinary philosophy is reflected. Churchman (1971) clearly advocates a Singerian inquiring system for ill-defined, or ill-structured, problem solving. Problem solving can be supported with a structured set of instruments called an inquiry system (Sol, 1982). The concept of an inquiry system is an extension of the inquiring system as defined by Churchman (1971), which focuses on activities to produce knowledge. Where Churchman focuses on activities and underlying philosophies, Sol includes the instruments to support these activities. Such an inquiry system reflects a synthetic, interdisciplinary philosophy. Sol (1982) presents simulation as a Singerian inquiry system and advocates simulation as the preferred method of inquiry for ill-structured problems. Simulation is defined as the process of designing a model of a real system and conducting experiments with this model for the purposes of either understanding the behavior of the systems or of evaluating various strategies for its operation (Shannon, 1975). Considering the management challenges that are present in today’s systems and the complexity and dynamics of these systems, we would like to follow a simulation based inquiry, where we translate a real-world system, e.g. a supply chain, into a business game for the purpose of what-if analyses. To gain a better understanding of what a business game is, we use the following description of a simulation game based on de Caluwé et al. (1996); de Caluwé (1997) and Greenblat (1988): A simulation game is a specific kind of simulation model that represents a complex problem area and contains different roles to be played by players and facilitators. Intended objectives to be achieved, activities to be performed and constraints on what can be done are part of the simulation game. Payoffs, positive and negative, are a result of players’ actions and elements in the simulation game. Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 5.

(18) Simulation games are used within a wide variety of application domains. We limit business games to a smaller set of application domains such as marketing, finance, product design, sales and human resources (Summers, 2004). We notice that the purpose of a business game, i.e. the translation of a system into a business game and experimenting with it by means of game play, is encapsulated by simulation as defined by Shannon (1975). From a problem solving perspective we see that the problem owner in the case of a business game is e.g. a teacher or a manager who wants students or employees to learn something about or gain more insight into a specific system, e.g. a supply chain. Thus, in this research the application of simulation as a method of inquiry supports solving the problem of this teacher via the development and usage of a business game. However, we also notice that in a process of simulating a system, the developer and user of a simulation model often are one and the same person that is going through the process of simulation. In case of a business game, there are two distinct roles: that of a game developer and that of a player. Game developers will develop a simulation model of a real-world system, while players, e.g. managers, via playing with these models (business games) will perform whatif analyses. In the next section we describe how today’s information technologies influence the development and usage of business games.. 1.4 Influence of IT on business games Today’s information technologies offer us new opportunities for providing players with (more) realistic business games. We are challenged to take advantage of state of the art technologies in the delivery of business games. Increasingly games are computer supported, using the Internet and the World Wide Web, to provide multi-media content and/or simply using the computer for crunching numbers. Dasgupta1 puts it as follows: “The Internet and web-based technologies have added a new dimension to the world of gaming. Since a crucial component of every simulation and game is the technological environment where it is run, the advent of new technology is changing the world of gaming in ways not seen in the past.”. Many authors observe that web-enhanced usage of business games is becoming the norm and players are increasingly becoming accustomed to using applications, e.g. business games, in a distributed setting using a computer connected to the 1. E-mail broadcast communication: Call for papers on the theme of Internet-mediated simulation/gaming, 2001.. 6.

(19) Internet (Martin, 2003; Pillutla, 2003). Asakawa and Gilbert (2003) ask for more experiments with games hosted on the Web, as there is still a wealth of options and possible usages of the Web to explore. In spite of the many possibilities for computer supported and Internet-mediated business games, there are many problems to overcome. A study by Chang (2003) on the use of business games in Hong Kong (Chang et al., 2003) found that the lengthy preparation time for facilitators and high start-up costs are a major issue. Further, administrative and logistical issues for the organisation of the game and potential lack of realism of the gaming exercise are barriers for the use of computer supported business games (Chang, 2003). In the case of Internet-mediated business games, a dependency on the flawless availability of the network connection between the players can be added as an extra liability. A survey by Faria and Wellington (2004) yields a number of reasons as to why users of computer supported business games have stopped using them. Among the reasons are an unsatisfactory simulation model, software that is too complex, the players did not like the model and there were administrative problems. Thavikulwat (1999) observed that the business games used today do not differ much from earlier, noncomputer supported games. The cost of creating such computer supported and Internet-mediated business games is still high, though we assume that they will decline over time. In line with Dasgupta, we see that today’s information and web-enabled, distributed, simulation technologies, such as DSOL (Jacobs, 2005) provide opportunities for (distributed) development and distributed usage, at any place and at any time, of business games. With the use of networks and the availability of powerful computers, traditional games based on rounds of play are slowly being replaced by continuous-time games (Chiesl, 1990; Lainema and Makkonen, 2003), where time pressure might be placed on the players to make decisions, or where time can be given to work out a strategy carefully (Gold and Pray, 2001). Continuous-time games require other technical architectures than round-based games (Lainema and Makkonen, 2003), but should lead to games mimicking real-life decision making in a better and more realistic way (Lainema, 2003).. 1.5 Effectiveness of developing and using business games As shown in the previous section, a leading question in the development and usage of business games concerns the effectiveness of these two activities, e.g. development may take too long, or the business game does not address its intended purpose. Further, we see that the effectiveness depends on the modes of use of the business game. When a business game is solely used in a training or learning mode, the effectiveness of the development process can become less relevant. However, in Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 7.

(20) an exploratory mode, i.e. in the interplay of different scenarios and different supply chain structures, the effectiveness of the development process can be relevant. Keen and Sol (2007) argue that the effectiveness of decision support systems can be expressed in a combination of three Us: • Usefulness. The usefulness of decision support tools expresses the value they add to the decision making process. Or how suitable the tools are for achieving a certain goal (Nielsen, 1993). It thus relates to the usefulness of a business game in addressing a management challenge, or the usefulness of the development tools to support the development of a business game. • Usability. Usability expresses the mesh between people, processes and technologies. Usability depends mainly on the interface between users and the decision support technology. Usability expresses, among others, the responsiveness, flexibility, adaptability and ease of interaction with a business game and the development tools. According to Nielsen (1993), usability can be seen as the extent to which the tools can be used by their users to achieve their goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. • Usage. Usage expresses the flexibility, adaptivity and suitability of a business game for organisational, technical, or social context. The main question concerning usage is: How are a business game and/or development tools embedded in an organisation? While some business games may address a management challenge, they may be hard to adjust to an organisational setting, e.g. the number of players is fixed, or there is a limited number of scenarios available. Other business games simply do not reflect reality in a sufficient enough way (Faria and Wellington, 2004), and hence their perceived usefulness might be less than in the case of more realistic business games, see e.g. Feinstein et al. (2002). Based on these observations and those mentioned in section 1.4, we conclude that numerous challenges, related to the effectiveness of developing and using business games, are present.. 1.6 Focus on business games for supply chain management Given the vast area of applications of business games (Summers, 2004), we chose to limit ourselves to computer-supported business games for supply chain management. Within supply chains, numerous trends indicate an increasing need for agility, increasing competitiveness, globalization and more focus on the customer (Boyson et al., 2004; Christopher, 2000; Lancioni et al., 2003; Zografos and Giannouli, 2003). Due to these and other trends managers are facing (new) supply 8.

(21) chain management challenges, such as strengthening supply chain relationships and improving efficiency (Christopher, 2000) and the coordination of an increasing number of supply chain actors (Ballou et al., 2000). Supply chain business games are a way to prepare managers for taking, presumably better, decisions in real-life situations (Kleijnen, 2005). However, popular supply chain business games such as the Beer Game2 , Marktstrat3 , the Siemens Briefcase Game (Mehring, 2000), and the Llenroc Plastics Game (Jackson et al., 1995) do not reflect specifically the supply chain management issues that are currently relevant. An illustration of a supply chain, in this case an assembly supply chain for computers, is shown in figure 1.2 where the actors commonly found in a supply chain are illustrated: suppliers, manufacturers, logistic providers, distributors and customers.. power supply supplier 1. power supply supplier 2. housing supplier. monitor supplier. printer supplier. system integrator. big corporate customer. external units distribution center (printers, monitors) carrier 1. memory supplier. distribution center. assembly site 1. small / medium business customer. carrier 2 assembly site 2 disk driver supplier. department store. consumer. processor supplier. Fig. 1.2: Illustration of a computer assembly supply chain, based on Kilger and Schneeweiss (2002), fig. 20.1. 2 3. See http://beergame.mit.edu/default.htm See http://www.markstratonline.com/public/public.shtml Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 9.

(22) The choice of the term ‘supply chain’ is unfortunate because it leads to confusion. A chain leads one to build a mental picture of linear, unchanging, and powerless chains pushing their supply (mass production) rather than responding to customers (mass customization). In contrast to this illustration, supply chains are flexible, dynamic and complex networks (Simchi-Levi et al., 2003). Networks are the complex, multifaced organisational structures that result from strategic alliances (Webster, 1992). Many, such as Lambert et al. (1998), feel that the concept of a demand network might be more appropriate as the trigger of processes within a supply chain given its emphasis on demand. The notion of such a demand network is best reflected by Kambil and Short (1994): “The business network, or supply chain, represents the pattern of interdependent relationships between the activities of a given firm and those of other firms in its competitive environment which influence each others’ strategies.”. Yet, the name supply chain seems to have stuck (Johnson and Pyke, 2000). Therefore, throughout this thesis, despite our reservations, we will use the term supply chain. The term supply chain management has become increasingly prominent, it was a ‘hot topic’ during the nineteen nineties, and still is (Cooper et al., 1997; Ross, 1998; Tan, 2001). Supply chain management has been defined by many authors from different fields, such as logistics and marketing. As a result of this, definitions differ across the fields and the authors (Mentzer et al., 2001). Managing a supply chain means managing across business activities in an organisation and managing relationships external to the organization with both suppliers and customers, or even their suppliers and customers (Lummus and Vokurka, 1999). While managing, managers should keep in mind the long-term performance of individual organisations and the supply chain as a whole (Mentzer et al., 2001). The challenging part of managing supply chains is the variety of factors present in a supply chain: dynamics due to an evolving character over time, complexity due to the number of actors and their geographical (global) locations, different and conflicting objectives of actors (organisations), and the change of system variations over time (Simchi-Levi et al., 2003). A number of supply chain trends and their management challenges are presented in the remainder of this section. These trends are a response to the rapidly changing business environment. A thorough understanding of these trends is required for effective and efficient supply chain management (Zografos and Giannouli, 2003). First, due to the increase in worldwide relations both quantitatively and qualitatively, globalization is becoming increasingly apparent (Archibugi et al., 1999). Global markets require customized products, which leads to smaller consignments (Whiteoak, 1999). Globalization requires increased levels of service, i.e. fast and reliable delivery of highly customized products (Zografos and Giannouli, 2003).. 10.

(23) The emergence of the Internet as the global information infrastructure backbone has accompanied the globalization of markets (Boyson et al., 1999). Global market forces involve threats from foreign competitors and opportunities from foreign customers (Simchi-Levi et al., 2003). This entails the challenges of dealing with long delivery lead times, high buffer stocks, complex logistics and high costs of coordination as companies try to coordinate the three flows, information, goods and money across the globe (Lee and Whang, 2000). To decrease inventory levels of raw materials and finished goods, demand oriented production strategies, i.e. pull oriented strategies, are used as opposed to anticipatory strategies that create high inventory levels of finished goods (Jones and Towill, 1998; Whiteoak, 1999). Second, there is the increasing importance of the customer role. Customers, who become more knowledgeable about products, demand a higher quality of products and services, and lower prices (Fredendall et al., 2001). Supply chains must be more able to determine and respond to this demand, instead of the forecast-driven approach often used by actors (Christopher, 2000). Third, there is mass customization. Mass customization relates to the ability of a supplier to provide customized products or services in high volumes and at reasonable low costs (Silveira et al., 2001). The reason for this rising level of mass customization is the breakdown of the stable mass market (Hart, 1995). Fourth, there is the development related to the availability of cost effective Information and Communication Technology. A key barrier to full supply chain management was the cost of communication with, and the coordination among, the many independent suppliers in supply chains (Fredendall et al., 2001). The role of the Internet within the infrastructure of future supply chains is considered to be integral and one of the key drivers of change. The use of information systems to ensure visibility (transparency) of item demand, location and status to all parts of the logistics network was already identified as an important attribute of late 1990s manufacturing (Kehoe and Boughton, 2001a,b). Fifth, there are a number of trends affecting the design of supply chains, such as the spatial concentration of production, the development of hub-satellite systems, wider geographical sourcing of suppliers and distribution of finished goods and reverse logistics (ELA, 1997; McKinnon and Forster, 2000; Zografos and Giannouli, 2000). These trends have led to a number of challenges for supply chain management. Decisions have to be made in less time and in a more complex and dynamic supply chain concerning more objectives (Zografos and Giannouli, 2003). Challenges that supply chain managers are facing today include (Lancioni, 2000): • viewing supply chain management as a multi-dimensional discipline, i.e. more than only managing distribution. Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 11.

(24) • continuing customer focus and accurate forecasts of supply chain requirements (Ballou et al., 2000) • optimal supply chain design • the need for agility in supply chains (Christopher, 2000) • the use of the Internet in supply chain operations (Lancioni et al., 2000) • measuring supply chain performance • effective management of the supply chain We see it as a challenge to cover the types of decision making activities illustrated in table 1.1 in combination with the management challenges described in this section. Based on Kleijnen (2005) we see that typical business games for supply chain management focus on the type of management activities as illustrated in table 1.1. To prepare managers for today’s (and past) supply chain management challenges, we argue that we need to present them with supply chain business games that cover the range from operational to strategic decision making. Players should be trained with realistic models; we need to get the complexity and dynamics of today’s supply chains into their heads. The modeling of real-world supply chain systems should be supported and players should experiment or perform what-if analyses with these models. Afterwards, players should be able to understand better the effects of their decisions and gain better insight into the real-world systems they are part of, and thus become better managers. The challenge game developers and facilitators are facing is how to present these supply chain management challenges, in a gaming environment, to managers. How will these managers become the supply chain management leaders of the future? To support game developers, facilitators and players, we argue that a suite of integrated services for developing and using business games is needed as we will introduce in the next section.. 1.7 A suite of integrated services for developing and using business games The research presented in this thesis is founded on the hypothesis that a suite of integrated, web-enabled software services should support the development and usage of distributed business games to support managers dealing with today’s decision making challenges. A suite is a well-chosen set of software services and recipes for inter-connectivity (Keen and Sol, 2007); a suite is thus a chosen set of services and recipes that are used to support e.g. the play of a business game 12.

(25) or its debriefing. A service is a self-describing, open component that performs a specific function and is designed to work with other services (Papazoglou and Dubray, 2004). Using simulation as our method of inquiry, in combination with current simulation tools, we should be able to capture the complexity and dynamics of today’s systems and present this using business games. We chose supply chain management as the application domain for our business games, as it has high societal relevance and it presents a strong management challenge. A first challenge is present when we try to capture the complexity and dynamics of today’s system and present them to managers using a business game (see e.g. (Chang, 2003; Faria and Wellington, 2004)). How do we translate such a system into a model and use it in a business game? How do we describe the actors, their relations and decision making patterns? What will be the underlying paradigm for our choice of a part of a larger system that we would like to investigate? We argue that object-orientation is the preferred paradigm when we abstract a part of a system into a model as part of a business game. Object-orientation has emerged as the de-facto modeling paradigm in software development (Booch et al., 1999). An object is a manifestation of an abstraction to which a set of operations can be applied and that has a state that stores the effects of the operations (Booch et al., 1999). Objects are instances of a class, which is a description of a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, relationships and semantics (Booch et al., 1999). Object-orientation supports us to identify, encapsulate and manipulate those parts of a system that we are interested in. A second challenge is related to the structure of the services of our suite. How can we overcome some of the issues described in section 1.4? From a softwareengineering perspective, quality aspects such as reusability, e.g. to support development of business games, stability and robustness are of relevance here (Ghezzi et al., 2002). Nowadays, the service oriented computing (SOC) paradigm underlies the design of modern information systems. Papazoglou and Geagakopoulos (2003) define SOC as the computing paradigm that utilizes services as fundamental elements for developing information systems. In this paradigm, a service is a self-describing open component that supports, if designed well, the rapid, low-cost composition of a distributed information system, e.g. a business game. Considering our challenge to provide a variety of business games in a distributed setting, we argue that the SOC paradigm should form the underlying paradigm when developing our suite and hence the development and usage of business games. Providing the right set of services and presenting their functionalities to the users, e.g. using graphical user interfaces and/or web-sites, in a useful and usable way should allow us to find answers to the questions and problems mentioned in preceding sections, such as models that are too simplistic and software that is too complex.. Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 13.

(26) We should reduce the (cognitive) workload on game developers and facilitators, and most importantly, we should be able to support managers in improving their decision making skills. 1.7.1 Research question We will now introduce the research question addressed in this thesis, which is based on theories of developing and using business games, whilst following the service oriented computing paradigm. Research question 1. What are the services that should be present in an integrated suite of services for developing and using distributed business games? Such a suite must include the implementation of the services and an architecture suitable for a variety of distributed business games. To test the effectiveness of our suite we add the research question outlined below, keeping in mind our application domain of supply chain management. Research question 2. How well does this suite support actors involved in their activities when developing and using distributed business games for supply chain management?. 1.8 Research approach A scientific inquiry is structured according to a research strategy, which is expressed in a set of research instruments. The composition of this set of instruments is based on the ‘world view’, and thus on an underlying philosophy of a researcher. 1.8.1 Philosophy Two major philosophies, or “schools of thought”, can be distinguished in the field of research philosophies: the ‘hard’ positivist research tradition and the ‘soft’ interpretivist research tradition (Hirschheim, 1994). The positivist tradition is based on the proposition that observation statements are the foundation of all meaningful concepts (Hintikka, 1975). Logical positivists have liberalized the demand for irrefutable verification. They accept a theory or scientific law as being true as soon as there is a strong empirical basis. The ‘truth’ as such is weakened to inductive probability or a degree of confirmation (Koningsveld, 1987). Recent logical positivists include Carnap and Simon. Scientific inquiry in this tradition focuses on the repeatability of the research, thereby using ‘hard’ research instruments such as laboratory experiments, field experiments and surveys (Galliers, 1992). Researchers using ‘hard’ research instruments have 14.

(27) a tendency to minimize the social context as much as possible, for example in the case of laboratory experiments to control variables. While field experiments and surveys are likely to provide little insight into the causes/processes behind a phenomenon due to too many uncontrollable variables (Galliers, 1992). The concepts of inductive confirmation and the usage of a basis of ‘hard’ facts obtained via observation are rejected, among others, by Popper and Lakatos in their discussions of naive and refined falsification. Theory is still based on the pillars of logic and facts, however the latter has become a ‘human’ product, i.e. an inter-subjective agreement founded on empirical studies, taking into account economic, social and psychological aspects (Koningsveld, 1987). Thus, scientific knowledge becomes a human creation. The interpretivist tradition takes into account the social actors and the dependencies between them. An interpretive researcher denies that observations are a sure foundation for knowledge. The interpretative perspective emphasizes subjectivity while actors, including the researcher, construct their own reality (Morgan, 1980; Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991). Interpretivist researchers use ‘soft’ research instruments such as reviews, action research and futures research (forecasting) (Galliers, 1992). We postulate that the development and usage of business games is a subjective human creation, e.g. due to the influence of game developers, facilitators, players and organisational settings on the analysis, design, implementation, and usage of business games. As such we favor an interpretive ‘world view’ while conducting our research. However, we also argue that, especially while measuring the effectiveness of a business game, we should adopt a more pluralistic view, enabling us to use for example the strengths of surveys to further support generalizations and statistical analysis. Using this view we are able to combine the strengths of one instrument to compensate for the weaknesses of another, which is referred to as triangulation (Jick, 1979). 1.8.2 Strategy A research strategy consists of a sequence of steps, which are used to support the two phases of a research project: theory building and theory testing (Galliers, 1992). March and Smith (1995) present two complementary but distinct paradigms, behavioral science and design science, for the design of information systems, e.g. a computer-supported business game. According to Hevner et al. (2004), “The behavioral-science paradigm has its roots in natural science research methods. It seeks to develop and justify theories (i.e., principles and laws) that explain or predict organisational and human phenomena surrounding the analysis, design, implementation, management, and use of information systems.”. The design science paradigm seeks to create innovations that define the ideas, practices, Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 15.

(28) technical capabilities, and products through which the analysis, design, implementation, and use of information systems can be effectively and efficiently accomplished (Denning, 1997; Tsichritzis, 1997). It has its roots in engineering and the sciences of the artificial (Simon, 1996) and it is fundamentally a problem-solving paradigm (Hevner et al., 2004). We follow Hevner et al. (2004) in their statement that design-science and behavioral science should be engaged in a complementary, exploratory research strategy when doing research related to information systems. Such an exploratory strategy can provide significant insight into a given situation. Hevner et al. (2004) argue that technology and behavior are not dichotomous in an information system. According to Hevner et al. (2004), the goal of behavioralscience research is truth, and that of design-science research is utility. They are inseparable (Lee, 2000). Truth informs design and utility informs theory. An artifact may have utility because of some yet undiscovered truth. A theory may yet to be developed to the point where its truth can be incorporated into design. An artifact, e.g. a business game, implemented in an organisational context, is often the object of study in behavioral-science research. Design science creates and evaluates artifacts intended to solve identified problems (Hevner et al., 2004). Initially, in this research, a business game was developed in cooperation with the R.H. Smith School of Business to understand their needs with respect to a business game, i.e. an artifact, for supply chain management. Issues concerning the strategy, alignment and organisational design with respect to using business games within organizations are outside the scope of this thesis. We focused mainly on design-research, and built artifacts to evaluate whether we meet the identified needs. The evaluation of a (new) artifact in a given organisational context affords the opportunity to apply empirical and qualitative methods (Hevner et al., 2004). The phenomena that emerge from the interaction of people, organisations, and technology may need to be qualitatively assessed to yield an understanding of the phenomena adequate for theory development or problem solving (Klein and Myers, 1999). During theory building, we mainly used ‘soft’ inductive reasoning and used qualitative research instruments for data collection. During theory testing we used both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ deductive reasoning for data collection, and used research instruments such as surveys, laboratory and field experiments. March and Smith (1995) identify two design processes and four design artifacts that should be produced when following a design-science research approach. The two processes are build and evaluate. The artifacts are constructs, models, methods and instantiations. Constructs are the language in which problems and solutions are defined and communicated (Schon, 1993). Models use constructs to represent a real-world situation, the design problem and its solution space (Simon, 1996). Methods define processes and hence they provide guidance on how to solve prob-. 16.

(29) lems, i.e, how to search the solution space. Instantiations are implementations in a working system and provide a proof of concept of the solution. 1.8.3 Instruments Different research instruments were used to implement our research strategy. Details concerning the instruments are described further on in this thesis when they are applied. Here we limit ourselves to a general description. • Action research. More than a single instrument, action research represents an approach,which is suitable for researching information systems (Avison et al., 1999, 2001; Galliers, 1994; McKay and Marshall, 2001). Action research represents a juxtaposition of action and research, or in other words, practice and theory (McKay and Marshall, 2001). Action research is a combination of a case study and field experiment (Galliers, 1994). It differs from case study research in the sense that the action researcher is directly involved in the intervention on the system at hand (Avison et al., 2001). An action researcher acknowledges that his, or her, presence does affect the situation that he or she is researching, the action researcher is viewed as a key participant in the research process (Avison et al., 2001; Checkland, 1991; Galliers, 1994). • Survey. “Surveys are essentially snapshots of practices, situations or views at a particular point of time, undertaken using questionnaires or (structured) interviews, from which inferences may be made” (Galliers, 1994). A survey allows us to do quantitative or qualitative research. Quantitative techniques are used to analyse responses to get significant results and, with careful design, provide a reasonable description of a real-world situation (Galliers, 1994). With respect to statistically sound results for a questionnaire, we should consider that often a Likert scale, e.g. 5- or 7-points, is used for possible answers. This range can for example go from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”, and often an exit option is added. Multiple options exist for taking interviews, such as a face-to-face interview, a phone interview, or a group interview (Creswell, 1994). Further, these interviews can be structured, semi-structured or open-ended. A general interpretation can be obtained via a representation of the data (Creswell, 1994; Seale et al., 2004). • Field experiment. An experiment with a (small) number of uncontrolled variables in a practical, i.e. an existing problem setting (Galliers, 1994). Supporting managers for today’s management challenges using business games. 17.

(30) • Laboratory experiment. An investigation of relations between controlled variables, with minimal and tightly controlled variables, solving an artificial problem situation (Galliers, 1994).. 1.9 Research Outline The outline of this research, illustrated in figure 1.3, reflects the exploratory, design-science research strategy. We start with the concepts and theories of developing and using business games in chapter 2. An exploratory case study is presented in chapter 3, in which we represent a real-world situation of designing the model for a business game (the Distributor Game). In line with (Hevner et al., 2004), we identify requirements and describe these at the end of chapter 3. We present our first set of services in chapter 4 where we describe the implementation of the services that are needed to instantiate and use the Distributor Game. We describe testing and using the Distributor Game and evaluate its added value for a current management challenge in chapter 5. Then, in chapter 6 we present our complete suite to support development and usage of business games. In chapter 7 we present a validation of our hypothesis that our suite contributes to more effective development of business games. We present our conclusions and explore potential future research in chapter 8.. chapter 1. descriptive conceptual model. initial problem statement. descriptive empirical case. chapter 2. chapter 3. descriptive prescriptive prescriptive empirical test. test business game. chapter 5. chapter 8. prescriptive empirical tests. test suite. chapter 7. Fig. 1.3: The outline of this research. 18. prescriptive conceptual model. chapter 4. prescriptive conceptual model. chapter 6.

(31) 2. INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPING AND USING BUSINESS GAMES As described in chapter 1, it is a challenge to support decision makers as they attempt to gain insight(s) into their (business) systems. Simulation is a method of inquiry that can be used to support gaining insight (Sol, 1982): a model of a real system is designed and experiments are performed using this model (Shannon, 1975). We introduced business games as a subset of simulation with which players, e.g. managers, via playing with these games, will perform what-if analyses. This leads to the notion that our suite should, among other things, support the translation of a system into e.g. autonomous actors with decision making scripts, player-controlled actors, the specification of a scenario and other artifacts. Note: an artifact is a component of a software product, such as a code module or a specification document (Schach, 2007). Developing and using business games forms the central theme of this chapter. We start with describing the actors involved when developing and using business games in section 2.1. The activities that are involved when developing and using a business game are introduced in section 2.2. We continue in section 2.3 with describing business games in general and computer supported business games in particular to gain better insight into what our suite should support. In section 2.4 we introduce a number of basic services that constitute the architecture of a computer-supported business game, and we introduce the concept of multi-tier architectures to support interaction between these services and their users. Finally, in section 2.5, we look at the development of business games from a service oriented perspective. How do we design and structure our suite of integrated services? To address this and other questions, we present the service oriented computing paradigm as the preferred method of structuring the services of our suite.. 2.1 Actors involved when developing and using a business game Based on the derived description of a business game given in section 1.3 on page 5, and the somewhat broader context that includes the development and testing of such a game, a number of actor roles can be distinguished. These roles represent the users of our suite, and their description and their activities provided insight.

(32) into actor specific needs and hence the required services and functionalities of our suite. These actors are: • a problem owner : the initiator of a business game. For example, a teacher who has a learning challenge, such as showing the effects of globalization in supply chains, that s/he wants students to experience using a business game. Or a manager who wants his or her employees to gain insight into the effects of different decision making strategies. • a game developer : s/he translates a problem c.q. a challenge that needs to be ‘gamed’ into a business game. A game developer abstracts a real world system and develops the concepts, objects and their relations. • a facilitator : s/he is involved during the introduction, usage and debriefing of a business game. We agree with Rollier (1992) that the term facilitator is the appropriate name to use for this actor role. However, other names, e.g. game administrator, are also commonly used in the field of business games. It is reasonable to propose that the activities of this actor role include administration, facilitation and management of a business game (Hall, 1994). This actor role includes e.g. producing results, acting as support and serving as a knowledge base. Further, this actor role includes facilitation of the learning process, e.g. by adjusting the sequence of events of the scenario in a business game (Hall, 1994). One of the most important activities a facilitator has is that of debriefing, which is an important part of a business game experience (Crookall, 1995). • a test player : s/he is ‘used’ during the validation and testing of a business game. This might be a student, a staff member, a manager, etc. • a player : s/he is ‘used’ during the briefing, actual play and debriefing of a business game. A player is ‘processed’ in the sense that after briefing, play and debriefing, a player hopefully has gained more insight in the system that is under investigation and the effects of decisions made. The actor roles described above are neither exclusive, nor static. Actors can have more than one role and an actor’s role may change over time. The actor roles were used to provide a rational structure to identify the requirements for our suite for developing and using business games; i.e. the actor roles were used to determine who needs what. 20.

(33) 2.2 Activities involved when developing and using a business game Following Sol (1982), we approach simulation as a method of inquiry in which a model of a real world system is made and experimented with for the purpose of decision support. We saw in chapter 1 that, following this approach, gaming is part of simulation and hence of this method of inquiry. The activities that are carried out when developing and using a business game are illustrated in figure 2.1 and they are based on Duke (1980); Greenblat (1988); de Caluwé et al. (1996); de Caluwé (1997) and Hall (2005). These activities form the basis of the activities that our suite should support. We present them using the structured analysis and design technique (SADT), which is a technique that can be used for system analysis and design (Marca and McGowan, 1987). SADT is based on identifying activities and their decomposition, via the inputs/outputs and control/support for each of these activities. We chose SADT because it allows us to demonstrate the relationships between the various activities (Gabbert, 2001) when developing and using business games. Each of the activities described below and shown in figure 2.1 can be decomposed into a more detailed set of activities. Iteration cycles and feedback loops are left out of figure 2.1 for reasons of clarity, however, they are present when the activities are carried out. A1. Context formulation. Which questions need to be answered with respect to the real world system and problem? What is the purpose of the business game? What are the requirements for learning, training, exploration? The output of this activity is the goal, e.g. what to learn, train or explore, of the business game. A2. Define practical boundaries for the game to be developed. How many intended users? Is the business game distributed via a network or not? How long should the business game last? These questions and the answers belonging to them should lead to some practical boundaries for game development. A3. Conceptualisation of the real world system. This is a conceptual description of a problem environment, i.e. a (future) real world system, expressed in systems terminology, e.g. using class diagrams describing objects and their relations. A4. Selection of components to be included in the business game. This activity deals with the what of a business game. The objective of this activity is to abstract from the real system those objects that are required to support the goal of the business game. Introduction to developing and using business games. 21.

(34) Fig. 2.1: Activities involved when developing and using a business game. 22. game developer. player. real world system. problem owner. context formulation. A1. problem perception. selection of components to be included in the business game. A4. define practical boundaries for the game to be developed. A2. conceptualisation of the real world system. A3. A5 specification of the business game. abstraction of system and selected components. conceptual description of system. boundaries of a business game. specified model of a business game. goal (e.g. what to learn). A6 construction deployable model of a business game A7. test player. verification, validation and testing A8 finalizing and preparation. A9. facilitator. briefing, play & debriefing. manuals. verified and tested business game. debriefed player.

(35) A5. Specification of the business game. Having decided the what of the business game in activity A4, the how is defined in this activity. It is about specifying the conceptual model, e.g. the actors, their relations, decision making scripts, etc., to support the goal of a business game. A6. Construction. This is an iterative, spiral like activity, e.g. as described by Boehm (1988). We start with a rudimentary version and working iteratively a business game and its underlying software architecture is made more complex to fill in more requirements. A7. Verification, validation, and testing. Verification is the process of determining that a business game accurately represents the conceptual description (the system components) of the model and its construction (Roache, 1998). Validation is the process of determining the degree to which the business game is an accurate representation of the real world system from the perspective of the intended purpose(s) of the business game (Roache, 1998). Validation includes trial construction, prototyping with a small group of participants and formal testing, i.e. a more rigorous evaluation of the business game (Duke, 1980). If rigorous changes are made to a business game while carrying out activity 3 of validation, i.e. formal testing, a game developer has to start again, beginning with activity 1 and proceeding to 3, until no rigorous changes are made while carrying out activity 3. A8. Finalizing, preparing the business game for use by client. This activity includes preparing guides for users and administrators, preparing user names and passwords, etc. A9. Briefing, play and debriefing. The last activity yields a debriefed player as its output. It includes briefing and playing the business game. During play, the players perform what-if analyses for the purpose of either understanding the behavior of the real world system under investigation or evaluating various strategies for its operation (Shannon, 1975). After play, debriefing takes place. Debriefing is about providing a connection between the experiences of a player and learning, or gaining insight, from those experiences (Lederman, 1992). There is a final activity that is considered to be relevant: the evaluation of a business game (Gentry, 1990; Feinstein and Cannon, 2002). This activity can be divided into two categories: internal and external evaluations (Angelides and Paul, 1999). Internal evaluations focus on an assessment of whether the desired behavior of the developed business game has been achieved (Siemer and Angelides, 1998) and are carried out by a game developer (Angelides and Paul, 1999). External Introduction to developing and using business games. 23.

(36) evaluations focus on an assessment of whether learning, while using the business game, has been achieved, and what the learning effects are. External evaluations are carried out by the problem owner. Questionnaires provide one possible type of instrument for these evaluations (Siemer and Angelides, 1998). We illustrate the position of our proposed suite in alignment with the above described activities in figure 2.2. We see that our suite is the centerpiece for supporting the activities of developing and using a business game. Using graphical user interfaces and web-pages that present the functionalities of the software services and information to its users, e.g. a game developer, one should be able to translate a real system into an abstract model and use this model in a certain mode of inquiry, e.g. training, learning or exploration. These modes of inquiry are, among other things, supported by using scripts to model decision making behavior of actors and scenarios to present a variety of management challenges to players. Our ‘leitmotif’ here is that our suite should support business games that stay as close to reality as needed, e.g. by simulating actors that are part of the models for such business games. As a first step to realize realistic business games, we introduce computer-supported business games in the next section.. Evaluation. Context formulation. Briefing, play and debriefing. Define practical boundaries. graphical user interfaces, web-pages. Finalizing. a suite for developing and using business games Verification, validation, and testing. Conceptualisation. Selection of components Construction Specification. Fig. 2.2: The suite in alignment with the activities for developing and using a business game. 24.

(37) 2.3 Computer-supported business games Business games are used for application domains such as marketing, finance, product design, sales and human resources (Summers, 2004). A historical overview by Faria (2001) shows that within such areas, business games are used to develop numerous skills. For example, business skills, specific job skills, personnel administration, research and data analysis, recruiting and applicant evaluation skills, leadership skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills and problem-solving skills. Given our application domain of supply chain management (see section 1.6), our focus is on business games that are used for developing skills such as sales management and inventory control (see also table 1.1 on page 3). Three types of business games exist: (1) computer-supported business games, (2) board games and (3) behavioral simulations where players act out a situation (Summers, 2004). Computer-supported business games differ from the other two types in the sense that a computer is used to process players’ decisions (Biggs, 1990). Given the challenge of providing support for managers dealing with today’s management challenges, we choose to focus on the first type of business games, i.e. computer-supported business games. Originally, computers were conceived, among other things, as a means to explore systems too large or too complex to be treated by known analytic models. However, it soon became increasingly clear that there were other ways of using computers: if a model of a system could be programmed for a computer, the behavior of the system could be studied by letting the computer simulate the system and observe its behavior (Simon, 1977). The added value of computers as a means to support business games was recognized early in their development, see for reviews (Biggs, 1990; Faria, 1990), and their use has become more popular with the ready availability of cheap and powerful computers (Summers, 2004). To present a realistic representation of a (real-world) system to players, computersupported business games should have the characteristics that we describe below (Thorsteinsson, 1998). They should: • realistically present information to players. Information should be presented in a realistic view and functionalities should be provided to work with this information that match the real world. • provide players with the freedom to explore a variety of decision making strategies. A business game should allow players to come up with their own strategies and explore them as they would in the real world, without, however, disrupting a business game to the extent that it becomes unstable. • provide ways for communication between players. A business game should enable players to communicate in a number of ways, e.g. using e-mail or Introduction to developing and using business games. 25.

(38) voice-over-ip. However, more traditional ways of communication are also used, such as telephone connections. • enable competition between players. Business competition can be a factor that motivates players, as happens in real-world systems. • provide a trigger. The time of a game alone can not be the trigger, unless it is combined with executing events at certain times. A business game depends on the events brought into it, e.g. new product entry, political changes and stochastic events that may address a wide variety of areas. The next step is to consider the architecture of computer-supported business games. What constitutes a business game? In the next section we introduce an architecture for computer-supported business games, which provides us with insight into the several services that are a part of business games and that support us when we develop and use these games.. 2.4 An architecture for computer-supported business games Based on Thavikulwat (2004), we distinguish four services that constitute a software architecture for a computer-supported business game: (1) a representational service, (2) a timing service, (3) a hosting service and (4) a scoring service. From chapter 1 we recall that a service is a self-describing open component that supports, if designed well, the rapid, low-cost composition of a distributed information system, e.g. a business game (Papazoglou and Geagakopoulos, 2003). In figure 2.3 we illustrate these services; in the next sections we describe these services in more detail. It is important to note that these services form a subset of our complete suite, since the services described here are used only during the play and debriefing activity when developing and using a business game. 2.4.1 A representational service A representational service supports the representation of a part of the real-world system a game developer would like to abstract into a model as part of a business game (Thavikulwat, 2004). For example, it contains the actors, business logic and products of a supply chain and it defines the relations between them. A representational service contains the logic to simulate the effects of decisions made, i.e. it should support players to see cause-and-effect relationships (Thavikulwat, 2004). We see that a representational service can be used to support the definition of a system as given by Holbaek-Hansen (1975) (see also section 1.2). A relevant choice is the language one should use to describe a real-world system to be able to make a representation. 26.

(39) supports distributed usage. contains the model of the real system business game. hosting service. player. representational service. LAN / WAN timing service. scoring service. facilitator. relation between two services. supports time advancement in a continuous fashion. supports functionality to score and rank players. Fig. 2.3: An architecture of a computer-supported business game. Nowadays, a widely used modeling paradigm is object-orientation, where an object is characterized by a selected set of attributes, operations and relations (Booch et al., 1999). The basic theory of object-orientation is to divide a system into objects and relations. Objects are instances of a class, which is a description of a set of objects that share the same attributes, operations, relationships and semantics (Booch et al., 1999). Thus an object is a manifestation of an abstraction to which a set of operations can applied and that has a state that stores the effects of the operations (Booch et al., 1999). Since the representational service contains the abstraction of a real world system, it contains the object categories that we need to describe such a system. In this research this means that one may expect to find objects describing e.g. a product with a price attribute and a supply chain actor that is associated with an inventory with methods to store and retrieve products. Other services of the suite should e.g. provide the functionalities needed to specify, i.e. parameterize, these and other objects for a specific business game. 2.4.2 A timing service A timing service can support the progress of time in a business game in different ways based on the following three dimensions: scaling, synchronization and drive (Thavikulwat, 1996). Scaling refers to the segmentation of time. Do players have Introduction to developing and using business games. 27.

(40) the ability to select the length of a period of play, or is it fixed? Synchronization of time determines whether all the players in a game have the same game-time. Unsynchronized play of a business game means that players can decide for themselves at what pace to advance in a game. The appropriate method of structuring time depends on the type of business game that is to be developed. The discussion about time in business games is relevant for several reasons. First, there are environmental changes that affect the whole decision making procedure in organisations, which should be reflected in business games (Summers, 2004). Second, the present views on technology-supported learning highlight the importance of business games which represent authentic activity and complexity in the learning context (Bednar et al., 1992; Duffy and Cunningham, 1996; Jonassen et al., 1999). Batch-based games, i.e. games where decisions are processed as batches in several rounds, lack the ability to provide a player with a dynamic situation reflecting their real world decision making environments (Feinstein et al., 2002). Continuous progression of time as a decision making dimension adds both authenticity and complexity to a business game (Lainema and Nurmi, 2006). In continuous-time based business games, there might be a time pressure on the players to make decisions, or time can be given to work out a strategy carefully (Gold and Pray, 2001). With the use of networks and the availability of powerful computers for every day usage, the traditional batch-based business games are slowly being replaced by continuous-time based games (Chiesl, 1990; Lainema and Makkonen, 2003). Hence we chose to support business games that use a continuous time based timing service as part of our suite for developing and using business games. 2.4.3 A hosting service A hosting service determines the way users, e.g. by means of an application that can be downloaded, web-pages or another way, interact with the model of a business game running on a server. When observing business games that are used in distributed settings, three types can be distinguished (Pillutla, 2003). 1. Client-server based business games using a Local Area Network (LAN). 2. Internet-mediated business games using services such as File Transfer Protocol and e-mail. The Internet provides a lot of possibilities, but a developer of a business game must consider different standards and incompatible operating systems (Thavikulwat, 2004). 3. Web-based business games using solely a web-browser as the interface, and the Internet as the underlying architecture. 28.