Playing Across Three Continents MBA Students Participate in Simulation through the Wharton/INSEAD Alliance
The world of game theory recently became more real-world for Wharton MBA students. In October 2007, students in Philadelphia and INSEAD students in Fontainebleau and Singapore played a cross-continent computer simulation.
Over two weeks, Wharton MBA students in the microeconomics core course matched wits with fellow MBA students in France and Singapore. Playing the MGEC Markets Games, students tested their understanding of how to build cooperation and trust in business relationships.
Wharton professor Keith Weigelt debriefs with the “Proof” learning team in Philadelphia (top); and INSEAD professor Nikos Vettas discusses simulation results with his class in Fontainebleau (below).
A total of 234 teams (144 teams from Wharton, 60 teams from INSEAD Fontainebleau and 30 teams from INSEAD Singapore) played four markets games — Product Quality, Quantity Competition, Advertising, and Spatial Location. Each representing one firm, the teams tried to maximize their firms’ profits.
“The thing that I found interesting was the intellectual exchange that occurred over each round,” said Heeyoon Chang, WG’09. “It was surreal to think that there was another group of four or five ‘friends’ who were sitting in a group study room in Fontainebleau or Singapore strategizing as well, and the only way we could get to know them was through an input of some numbers.”
Chang is a member of the Wharton MBA learning team known as “Proof,” one of the most consistently cooperative, and therefore best performing, teams this fall.
Now in its second year of play across the schools, the game was rolled out as pilot to a limited number of teams last year. The two professors who initiated this collaboration — Wharton management professor Keith Weigelt and INSEAD economics professor Tim Van Zandt — said that the simulation was very effective this year, with 66 percent of the students choosing the equilibrium strategy.
The game, developed at INSEAD, was introduced at Wharton by Weigelt, who met Van Zandt at Fontainebleau through the Wharton/INSEAD faculty exchange program.
“This teaching experiment is a great example of the innovation coming out of this partnership,” said Wharton management professor and Wharton/INSEAD Alliance Executive Director John Kimberly.
About the Wharton/INSEAD Alliance
The Wharton/INSEAD Alliance is a strategic partnership that expands the knowledge resources and global reach of both schools across their four collective campuses in the U.S. (Philadelphia and San Francisco), Europe (Fontainebleau), and Asia (Singapore).
In addition to the faculty exchange, the Alliance includes the jointly funded Center for Global Research and Development, an MBA student exchange, co-branded executive education courses, and ongoing joint alumni initiatives in cities worldwide.
