PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to explore the interrelations between success in the Business Games course and other MSc courses, and the parameters that influence success in managing firms in business games.Design/methodology/approachThe research sample was comprised of graduate students from the Management of Technology faculty at Holon Institute of Technology. They study courses in the program, including the Business Games course. Special business game software, named Decision Makers, was used for the analyses. Statistical analyses of the interrelations among different program courses cover the main purpose. After defining five success criteria, statistical analyses of success and failure are presented.FindingsIn this course, success was generally uncorrelated with other courses. The reason for this was probably due to its project‐based learning (PBL) environment. The study shows that students tend to reduce their efforts across time and improve their performance, due to the “learning curve”. Analysis of the results shows that when teams overused the simulation runs, they do not analyze their situation, but rather prefer the “trial and error” method.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study provides results about the importance of training managers through using the business game simulator.Originality/valueUsing PBL is very exiting for those students who have difficulties in classroom studies. By using PBL, these students rapidly improve their management skills.

The Nash-Cournot equilibrium theorem is based on some assumptions that usually do not hold true in reality. In this study, duopoly market equilibrium is tested by a group of players using a special business simulator that was adopted specifically for this task. The competing players knew their market in advance and had received their opponent's price, quantity of product and profits in the previous yearly quarter. Equipped with this knowledge, each participant (firm) had to make decisions regarding their current price, and quantity of products. The results showed that these decisions were mainly influenced by the difference in quantities and price, rather than the actual prices and quantities, as was expected. Moreover, if the prices and quantities of both firms were quite similar, they believed they had achieved a state of equilibrium, although they were sometimes quite far from it.

Business games are usually an improved way for participants to learn in an exciting, novel and competitive way, the business world. The participants can turn business plan into real time decisions, examine their decisions and learn from their own success or failures in a competitive environment. The objective of a business game is to offer participants the opportunity to learn by doing to manage a firm and receive an immediate feedback on their decisions. In this paper we study the contribution of training to decision making by using a business game simulator. The main goal of this study is to measure contribution of business game course to a master in management program. The main results show that the business game course has a unique contribution to a management program. Its different concept from all other courses enables different learning and therefore completes the management education.