Marketplace in Lithuania

Bonita Barger from Tennessee Technology University spent last fall in Vilnius, Lithuania where she introduced Marketplace to one hundred and ten fourth-year business students in the International School of Management. The students participated in Marketplace’s Introduction to Business and Strategy. Bonita formed 5 universes of 4-5 teams each, with 4-6 students per team. This was the Lithuanian students’ first academic simulation.

Bonita chose the Introduction to Business and Strategy simulation to help the students understand business ethics. As she said, “I believe that ethics are everywhere in business and business decision-making. You cannot separate ethics from daily and strategic business practices and decisions. Many decisions you make have ethical implications for the business either in the present or in the future.”

To underscore her point, here are several examples of ethical issues that the students encountered during the simulation:

• One company named itself ORANGE. Unfortunately, Orange had already been trademarked. The firm was sued for trademark infringement in the game and fined.
• Two companies in one Universe tried to form a cartel and corner the market on price setting. They were caught and fined.
• Teams tried to agree on setting of salaries of their employees, as well as the overall benefits package.
• The Deceptive Ad feature was used extensively. Teams were forewarned as to ad creation and deceptive advertising. Several real life cases were used to illustrate how deceptive advertising can impact a business decades after the incident (the Joe Camel cigarette ads).
• For dysfunctional team members, the teams agreed to a three-phase disciplinary action policy. After the second warning, dysfunctional or non-performing team members could be fired. Terminated team members had seven days to appeal to the instructor in writing.

While the simulation served multiple business training purposes, it also has added value in highlighting these and other ethical issues in a country that is slowly moving from a planned command economy with corrupt systems to more free market economy with focus on ethical legal practices.

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