Virtual outlets: business gaming for fashion retail operations

The paper proceeds from the principle that educators in the HE sector are constantly attempting to bring management education closer to reality but that teaching has generally focuses on two models, specifically the ‘theory of business’ and ‘training in human and resource management skills’. It is argued here that these circumstances mean that the context of learning remains artificial and it is therefore difficult to reproduce the characteristics of practice in the classroom. Through modelling and electronic simulation of the fashion retail environment, Virtual Outlets creates a fashion retail pipeline enabling the game user to consider product buying, merchandising and satisfaction of the consumer proposition through a succession of business cycles. The complexities of planning and decision-making are explored through segmentation analysis, sourcing strategy and forward ordering, store allocation, space planning, pricing policy/markdowns. The game has been used in teaching programmes including management courses at Manchester Metropolitan University. Participants were observed to become quickly conversant with the workings of the game.

Dawn Lavelle
Current Research
Simulation Games
Virtual Outlets - The business simulation is intended to provide an educational and stimulating introduction into the business of fashion retailing. The simulation is designed to provide players with real world experiences in managing the variables that are encountered in business decision-making across the retail pipeline. As such players experience how the many areas of retailing are interrelated and the decision maker must consider how they affect each other in the fulfilment of the retail proposition.
Netrepreneur - This simulatory environment creates a constructed representation of the e-commerce environment. Netrepreneur simulates the initial start up phases of e-business creation and aims to create a holistic understanding of the entrepreneurial process as well as encouraging participants to 'learn by doing' in the simulated virtual world, instead of trial and error in the real e-economy.
Future Finance - The Home Office has supported and funded research into the development of an educational simulation game which creates an experiential 'virtual world', which participants can play to learn the general dynamics of managing their personal financial future. The purpose of this development was to build a simulation game to improve financial literacy amongst groups 'at risk' in terms of poor personal financial management and it’s associated problems.