Learning through playing: appreciating the role of gamification in business management education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose Through active learning and experiential learning theoretical perspectives, this paper explores the role of gamification on the student experience and student learning of undergraduate business management students in the UK.Design/methodology/approach To capture the impact of gamification on student experience and student learning during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, data were collected through online surveys with L6 undergraduate students studying during the academic years 2020–2021, 2021–2022 and 2022–2023. Findings The analysis of the data revealed three core themes: a) gaining practical experience through gamification b) opportunities for peer engagement and active participation and c) development of soft skills and hard skills.Practical implications Based on the lessons learnt, the paper proposes actions and guidelines for integrating gamification into business management curricula that prepare future business managers and leaders to respond to unforeseen challenges and changes. Originality/value This study contributes to a series of design suggestions for fellow tutors and practitioners seeking to advance their pedagogical approach to developing agile and resilient future managers and leaders

Missing Attention to Power Dynamics in Collaborative Multi-Actor Business Models for Sustainability

Advances within the Sustainability Business Models (SBMs) literature from the perspective of boundary-spanning business models have received limited attention. Further, discourse within the SBMs literature exploring collaborative practices adopts the perspective that collaborative forums are always a ‘force for good’. This paper reviews important theories and relevant literature and calls into question the dearth of research examining business models for sustainability and focuses on the role that power, and power relations, play in the shaping and steering of value creation. In advancing research on sustainable operations, we assess the implications of ignoring uneven power, and draw attention to the affects and consequences of this omission in the study of SBMs. By embracing an alternative, deliberative democracy perspective, we challenge the sub-literature on collaborative multi-actor business models. In taking an inquisitive and critical stance on omnipresent power dynamics, we shine a light on the consequences of uneven power across multi-actor structures by augmenting research with practical insights from selected vignettes. Our proposed concept of a democratic business model for sustainability offers a new strand of theoretical development and a fresh perspective on the sustainability and business models literature

Sustainability Education Beyond the Classroom: How the “Exploding University” Nurtures Collective Intelligence Across Local and Global Communities

This chapter explores how the authors expanded their teaching and learning beyond the classroom at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. It puts forward the theoretical concept of the “exploding university” as a way to help develop a critical yet hopeful understanding of collective problems at local and global scales. This helps them explore three interrelated initiatives that brought teachers, students, and communities together, namely a sustainability festival, research project on animal rehoming, and community tree-planting drive. The chapter illuminates how exploding the work beyond the classroom enabled everyone involved to take action on the challenges that matter to them, while also developing a “collective intelligence” about their underlying causes. The exploding university thus emerges as a theoretical and practical model, which we can use to inspire students to actively critique, reimagine, and reconstruct the world around them. The authors conclude by encouraging and supporting others who might wish to embark on similar journeys themselves

Leveraging hope & experience: Towards an integrated model of transformative learning, community and leadership for sustainability action and change

How can we engage in futures-oriented ‘hope work’ in the face of extraordinary global challenges, and from within the confines of a commodified higher education system? This chapter traces the experience of a group of staff and students at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, who came together to explore this question through an experimental, emergent, and creative process of co-operative inquiry. This shared safe space enabled relations of trust, openness and enjoyment to emerge, which were conducive to learning, community-building, and shared leadership. Thus our shared experience enabled us to shed new and critical light on transformative learning, transformative community and transformative leadership. However, in place of three separate concepts, our findings lead us to a composite, integrated and mutually reinforcing model centred on a set of connecting 2 principles. These in turn are rooted in our subjective experiences of our practical cares and concerns, both individual and shared. Emerging from within an experiential ontology, then, this integrated model offers a reflexive alternative to the top-down approach to sustainability teaching and strategy that currently prevails in many higher education institutions. We share here our experience and the theoretical model it catalysed – along with suggestions for practical actions. In so doing, we hope that we might inspire others to experiment (in their own way) with more organic, less hierarchical, and potentially more enduring approaches to the pedagogy and practice of sustainability

Social Value at Universities: Policy and Practice Guidance

Universities globally can be major hubs of social and economic activity which drive change in society. We know that they can create multiple and diverse routes into employment, can have significant purchasing power which can inform standards across supply chains, can create learning opportunities which directly nourish and enrich local communities, and can deliver research and innovation which impact health for the better. However, the measurable difference these make to lives – and how universities and the funding bodies account for this impact - is still unknown. We created the Global Symposia for Social Value at Universities in 2022, as a way to accelerate the movement. Over 130 joined from 12 countries to contribute to the analysis, from different disciplines such as health, arts, environmental sciences, alongside private, public and third sector stakeholders. There were two symposiums. The first was related to understanding policy and practice across disciplines at universities; the second was focused on one of the biggest sectors, business and management studies. This report presents the findings from both symposiums from the perspective of different stakeholders: 1. what is currently being done that is valued 2. recommendations for improvement The Global Symposia at Universities 2022 was co-hosted between Social Value UK and Liverpool John Moores University, the British Academy of Management (Sustainable and Responsible Business SIG), Principles for Responsible Management Education (Working Group on Poverty), University Vocational Awards Council, Social Value International, The Academy of Business in Society, American International Accreditation Association for Schools and Colleges, and the National Society for Experiential Education. Maddy England and Clare Bentley at Social Value UK were also central to delivering this guidance. Supported by Liverpool John Moores University’s Quality Research Funds

Learning through playing: Appreciating the role of gamification in business management education

Purpose: Through active learning and experiential learning theoretical perspectives, this paper explores the role of gamification on the student experience and student learning of undergraduate business management students in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: To capture the impact of gamification on student experience and student learning during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, data was collected through online surveys with L6 undergraduate students studying during the academic years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23. Findings: The analysis of the data revealed three core themes: a) gaining practical experience through gamification b) opportunities for peer engagement and active participation and c) development of soft skills and hard skills. Originality/value: This study contributes to a series of design suggestions for fellow tutors and practitioners seeking to advance their pedagogical approach to developing agile and resilient future managers and leaders. Practical implications: Based on the lessons learnt, the paper proposes actions and guidelines for integrating gamification into business management curricula that prepare future business managers and leaders to respond to unforeseen challenges and changes