This paper confirms that postgraduate students using consultancy software as learning tools enhanced their international business strategy research, decision-making abilities and skills of critical thinking skills. The authors discuss one of the most important challenges faced by international business faculties that is, how to bring the real world into the classroom or training environment. The software discussed in this paper aims to achieve this very important pedagogical objective by providing the platform needed to support students and business practitioners alike in their roles as managers and decision makers in a global setting. More specifically, the software enables the users to perform a situation analysis of a company, determine suitable markets for a company's products/services, perform detailed competitive analysis and market research to develop an online international business plan. The study shares teaching experiences based on the use of the system and provides feedback from student surveys. The findings indicate that the software enhanced the students' understanding of international business strategy and improved their team working, research and critical thinking skills.
The
Internet has revolutionized the way, management consultancy
research is done today with more targeted access to information
resources and web-based strategic management tools like
the Global Marketing Management System Online (GMMSO). This
development has been debated by practitioners of the old
school of classroom lecture-based teaching and the new school
of interactive learning especially when faced with the prospect
of offering some practical aspects to an MBA course. There
has been an explosive growth in web-based learning or pedagogical
resources and some authors like Zhao (2003) correlate the
growth of the Internet and web technology resources as having
an impact on the growth of online pedagogy and predicts
a further growth in this sector of higher education. This
is also supported by Marcus (2006), who argues that technology
is causing pedagogical changes from `lecture and lecture
discussion to student centered learning', a key aspect of
the GMMSO system. Thompson et al. (2001) have argued
that higher education will be delivered in mixed mode methodologies
including online approaches and there is a shift from distance
learning strategies to screen-based pedagogical methods
of which the GMMSO is an example.
The
GMMSO is essentially a global management research and strategic
planning tool designed to help researchers, practitioners,
consultants and students to deliver their varied roles as
decision makers, managers and analysts in a global environment.
Unlike the commercially available simulation games on strategy,
the GMMSO is a real management tool that provides a comprehensive,
systematic and integrative strategic planning process design
to guide managers through the corporate decision making
process. More specifically, the software will enable users
to perform a situation analysis of a company, determine
best markets for a company's products/services and develop
an online international business plan. |
