GEO: An Entrepreneurship-Oriented Computer Assisted International Strategy Simulation

Abstract

GEO is an Internet-based game that places participants in a global economic environment of nations with different trade policies, from import substitution to free trade. The game’s user interface is classic Microsoft Windows. Participants (a) register individually, (b) are automatically assigned to groups based on their preferred group sizes, (c) collectively set their nation’s economic policies, (d) can migrate across nations, (e) advance through multiple life cycles, and (f) receive a score that is a weighted sum of the participant’s individual performance and the average performance of the members of the participant’s group. Each participant can found five companies, each of which can produce one of five interdependent products. Companies (a) employ participants to raise their production, (b) compensate their employees with salaries and stock options, (c) sell their products through wholesale and retail channels, (d) can have an unlimited number of shareholders, and (e) can be acquired through either open-market purchases of shares or statutory takeovers. A demonstration version of GEO is available at http://pages.towson.edu/precha/geo.