Why Marketplace

Why use Marketplace Simulations?

Almost 100% of the comments made on instructor evaluations regarding the Marketplace business simulations have been positive and some students have inquired about playing the simulation game again. I strongly recommend trying the Marketplace business game series.

Michael T. Elliott, Associate Prof. of Marketing

Everything to get you started

Get access to free instructor materials containing ready to use handouts, lectures, presentations, sample syllabus, coaching tips, grading guidelines, test banks and more.

Take advantage of pre-played sample simulation games to get familiar with the simulation content. Play a free evaluation game and get a taste of what your students will experience. Or schedule a personal tour and one of our product specialists will get you up to speed over the phone.

To experience how to make the most out of simulations, join one of our free Train-the-Trainers workshops.

Ease of use

Marketplace simulations are web-based applications, which you and your students can access from any device connected to the Internet without the need for software installation. An easy to use interface guides your students every step of the way. A comprehensive help file system ensures that the information your students need is always only a click away.

Integration of functional disciplines

Marketplace Simulations expose your students to all the functional disciplines of business. Your students deal with the interplay between marketing, operations, finance, accounting, and team management. They see how their decisions and actions affect the performance of others within the company and the entire organization. They learn to understand the linkages among the functional areas of business. Marketplace helps your students grasp the big picture of how business operates while providing enough detail to help them understand the nuances of marketing, operations, finances, accounting, and management.

Linking each decision to the firm’s cash flow and financial performance enables the students to see and feel the financial implications of their actions. This results in a greater financial accountability and an in-depth understanding of the business enterprise as a whole. When your students finish the exercise, they feel there is a sharp increase in their level of confidence gained through new knowledge and experience.

Free support when you need it

Our experienced support team is available to answer your and your students’ questions via e-mail or phone any day of the week. Our instructors can access 24/7 emergency support.

Real-time team collaboration

With the chat, email, and teamwork monitor built directly into the student software, Marketplace business simulations make online collaboration easy and enjoyable.

Automated grading

Marketplace simulations come with an automated grading feature based on each teams’ cumulative balanced scorecard results from the simulation. As an instructor, you can pick from three levels of grading difficulty; Easy, Intermediate, and Difficult. Additionally, you can manually adjust the grades on a student or team basis.

Peer evaluations

Throughout the simulation exercise, you can choose to administer online peer evaluation surveys. You will receive summary reports for each student and each section of the evaluation. You can also release the results of peer evaluations to your students.

Sound teaching methodology

The teaching methodology of Marketplace business simulations has been developed by Dr. Ernest Cadotte, professor of Marketing at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Cadotte worked with a dozen business faculty from around the world to create a robust simulation model. The simulation covers the essence of every functional area of business and their interconnectedness with maximum realism. The simulation model used in Marketplace has been refined for over 30 years. It is one of the most sophisticated business simulation models available today.

Assurance of Learning

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) requires that business schools specify their learning objectives and measure how well they are meeting these objectives. Our business simulations offer a number of assessment tools that address these requirements. They are designed to gauge students’ progress and learning during the simulation and to help you enhance the educational outcomes of the exercise.

Learn more about Assurance of Learning.

Bundled electronic textbook

You can order an electronic copy of the Cadotte and Bruce textbook, The Management of Strategy in the Marketplace for your students when you submit the request for your business simulation game. The textbook will be available to your students in a pdf format directly from the student site. You can select the chapters to include in your course. Even with the full set of chapters, the simulation and the e-Textbook bundle will cost less than a typical printed textbook alone. And, you save a bunch of trees.

Realistic business situations

In Marketplace Simulations, marketing and business students deal with decisions and situations that are commonly encountered in real-life business. This strategic and deeply tactical exercise challenges your students to collaborate, communicate, and adapt to the unexpected. Visually rich decision screens allow them to connect to the products they design and introduce to the market. And while all business information is still presented in a traditional form, the added layer of visual elements treats the consequences of student actions as real-life situations. These resonate with students on a more personal level, which greatly increases knowledge retention.

Effective learning strategy

Rather than start in the middle of the story with a mature firm, the a Marketplace simulation uses a new venture situation. Your students gradually build the business and the simulation introduces new issues as they become relevant. Each decision period presents a dominant set of decisions. In several rounds, students evaluate the market opportunity, choose a business strategy, evaluate the tactical options and make a series of decisions with profitability in mind. Each period’s activities build upon the prior content so that there is practice through repetition. Business activities such as cash flow planning, value creation in product design, production scheduling, profitability analysis, and strategic planning and management require repetitive exercise in order to set them into your students’ natural thinking.