BUSINESS GAMES AND ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION

Business Games are, in their essence, educational games with simulation characteristics of simplified business situations to promote learning through experience. This article discusses the educational aspects of two "business simulation games" with which the author works against the literature of business games: The Sebrae (The Brazilian Service of Support for Micro and Small Enterprises) Challenge and the BIZgame, an integration game at the Entrepreneurial Campus. In both games, the participants simulate the management of an industrial business, working with relevant competencies for future entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial work. However, while the Sebrae Challenge is a competition involving thousands of students playing at the same time, BIZgame is a game that can be configured and applied by university professors in their classes. The article presents the evolution of business games and indicates potential convergences with technologies and models used in entertainment games. A typology of business games and a set of criteria, described in specialized literature, are employed to analyze the perceived benefits for professors and students, respectively, in the application and utilization of business games in an educational context. The last part of the article explores the criteria used to analyze stated perceptions by Sebrae Challenge and BIZgame participants, seen as tools that aim to add a dimension to entrepreneurial education at the university level.