Assessing Serious Games within Purchasing and Supply Management Education: An In-class Experiment

Purchasing and supply management (PSM) is evolving due to the introduction of new technologies. To benefit from purchasing activities and technology advancement, purchasing professionals need specific skills (Bals et al., 2019). Therefore, current study programs need to be adjusted, and educational methods need to be found (Pekkanen et al., 2020). One example of these educational methods are serious games as the beer distribution game within the Supply Chain Management (SCM) context (Forrester, 1961). However, available games are not focused on purchasing. Thus, an online purchasing game has been developed, focusing on cost-reduction techniques and supplier relationship management. Within the game, students are in charge of managing anorganisation’s purchasing department, developing in the process of the game from an operative buyer towards a chief purchasing officer. Since this game is a substitute to existing traditional lectures, the usefulness of this game was tested based on a group comparison experiment. Here, the group following the existing traditional lectures (N=66) was compared to the group of students learning within the serious game lectures (N=105). For data collection, self-rated surveys, pre-and post-survey, and the exam scores have been analysed. Based on the experimental methodology applied, it has been found that students who played the game score significantly higher in the exam. Further, the design of the game was evaluated based on various criteria, e.g., competitive and collaborative elements, game design, and understandability. It has been shown that serious games are useful to deepen understanding of purchasing and develop purchasing skills.