UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS - MARKETING
Course unit title: BUSINESS SIMULATION
Name of Instructor (s):
Course unit code: BUS503098
Type of course unit: Compulsory
Level of course unit: Bachelor
Year of study: 3 Semester: 6th
Course learning outcomes:
After finishing the course, students should be able to:
- Recognise impacts of international environment to international businesses and
how they react to these impacts.
- Define & analyse differences in business strategies, understand and be able to
make business plans.
- Know how to assign resources to respond to a fiercer business
competitiveenvironment.
- Build up organisational structures depending on business strategies.
- Understand a variety of business functions: Marketing, HR, Finance, Operations,
Sales, Accounting; and utilise the connections between these functions.
- Explain the roles of a management team in an international company and
challenges in assigning responsibilities between the team members, in order to
implement international strategies.
- Be aware of obligations and responsibilities of international companies to local
people, governments, and communities in different countries.
- Apply knowledge to solve practical problems.
- Practice and fluently capture soft skills, such as teamwork, interpersonal skills,
negotiation, leadership, critical thinking.
Prerequisites: International Business Management course.
Course description: Business Simulation module requires students to apply
combination of knowledge that they have learnt in International Business major
core courses, such as: Strategic Management, Operations and Supply Chain
Management, Marketing, Human Resources Management, and Financial
Management into practice.
Students will execute business strategic decisions, which represented by data
imported to a web-based system that mirror the real-world characters of the digital
camera industry. In this module, students shall approach the real business practices
by directly involving to manage virtual international companies. They should
employ various business strategies to compete with their rivals in the virtual
competitive environment that have similar settings with the reality.
In addition, the module helps students to enhance their soft skills, such as:
communication skills, interpersonal skills, team-work skills, problem-solving
skills, leadership, and report analysis.
Mode of delivery: Face to face
Course materials:
Required readings:
Arthur A. Thompson, Jr. et al (2020). GLO-BUS Developing Winning Competitive
Strategies (Participant’s Guide).
Mc-Graw Hill Education.
Recommended Readings:
Charles W.L. Hill (2014). Global Business for today, 8th ed. Mc-Graw Hill
Education.
Assignments:
1. Attendance and in-class discussion: Students are required to participate in group
tutorial every week. This will support you to make decisions for your business.
2. 3-year business plans: each group will need to submit two long term business
plans to the system at year 9 and year 12 in the simulation.
3. Quizzes: in order to test your basis understanding of the simulation, two online
quizzes needed to be taken at the 3rd week and the 6th week. There will be 20
questions in each quiz.
4. Group presentation: After completing the simulation at year 15, groups are
required to give a presentation on class.
Assessment Methods
 Attendance and in-class discussion 10%
 Two 3-Year business plans 20% (2 x 10%)
 Two Quizzes 15% (5% and 10%)
 Group presentation 5%
 Final business performance 50%
Planned learning activities and Teaching methods: Tutorial will be the main
teaching approach for the module.
Lecture: 15 hours
Tutorial: 45 hours
Group discussion & practice: 45 hours
Language of Instruction: English
Class schedule
Dates
Week 1
05/01
Week 2
12/01
Week 3
19/01
(via LMS
and Globus)
24/01-30/01
31/01-06/02
Week 4
09/02
Week 5
16/02
Week 6
23/02
(via LMS
and Globus)
Week 7
02/03
Learning objectives/topics/activities
Welcome
Course introduction
Group formation and game registration.
First trial (Year 6) - 23g (VN) 08/01
Read: Participant Guide
Tutorial:
- Yearly decision Plan
- Organizational Chart
- Weekly Group member performance evaluation and Weekly Attendance
List
Second trial (Year 7) -23g (VN) 14/01 data reset 17/01
Tutorial :
- Year 6 trial report analysis
- Year 7 trial decision plan.
Year 6 decision round -23g (VN) 21/01
Quiz 1 (14g-15g 19/01)
Tutorial:
- Year 7 trial report analysis
- Year 6 decision plan
Year 7 decision round 23g 11/02
Tutorial:
- Year 6 result analysis
- Year 7 decision plan
Year 8 decision round – 23g 18/02
Tutorial:
- Year 7 result analysis
- Year 8 decision plan
Year 9 decision round – 23g 25/02
Quiz 2
The 1st 3-year strategic plan
Tutorial:
- Year 8 result analysis
- Year 9 decision plan
Year 10 decision round – 23g 04/03
Tutorial:
- Year 9 result analysis
Week 8
09/03
Week 9
16/3
(via LMS
and Globus)
Week 10
23/03
Week 11
30/03
(via LMS and Globus)
Week 12
06/4
- Year 10 decision plan
Year 11 decision round - 23g 11/03
Tutorial:
- Year 10 result analysis
- Year 11 decision plan
Year 12 decision round -23g 18/03
The 2nd 3-year strategic plan
Tutorial:
- Year 11 result analysis
- Year 12 & 13 decision plan
Year 13 & 14 decision round -23g 20/03 & 23g 25/03
Tutorial:
- Year 12 & 13 result analysis
- Year 14 & 15 decision plan
Year 15 decision round -23g 28/03
Tutorial:
- Year 14 &15 result analysis
Presentation
Final report submission 23g 06/4
Peer evaluation (9-10/4)