Students and teachers from different universities participated in Startup BIP at Hanze

Last week, from the 4th to the 8th of December, the Intensive Week of the STARS EU Blended Intensive Programme took place at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen.

The BIP was hosted by two professorships Entrepreneurship in transition from Alexander Grit and International Business from Diederich Bakker. It is part of the research agenda how to create engaging international business education across European Universities and how to involve a wider academic audience. The idea is that Blended Intensive Programs will be part of regular education practices at the universities and that they take place every year. During the week several gatherings took place whereunder the execution of the learning game and a learning seminar.

Simulation game TOPSIM Startup
Playing an online management simulation game about thirty students and teachers from different STARS EU universities competed in groups to become the best start-up in the surfboard industry. One aim of the BIP was to provide a comprehensive, real-life entrepreneurship project and to impart relevant knowledge through action learning as part of an intercultural and interdisciplinary team experience.

The simulation game “TOPSIM Startup” was used as an online management simulation, prepared, guided and followed by lectures, workshops and coaching by teachers from the participating universities. During the execution of the game, students and lectures learned all the stages of developing a business: from business idea to market research, business model, business plan, financing, start-up, management and leading their business to the first years after start up.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Form, from HSB Hochschule Bremen who led the simulation game, explained that “the students not only learn how to develop a startup but also how to deal with the market and their competitors. That is usually a very exciting experience for students. Not only learning more about the way a company functions, but as well as it comes to teams dynamics, working together in international teams, making efficient and effective decisions with the team that consists of different backgrounds and characters which can be a challenge too.”

Hugo Álvarez Galón, student of University of La Laguna (Spain), emphasizes the strong dependency of the competitors in the market. “We invented a startup with a focus on ‘high quality surfproducts with friendly materials because we want to give our company an image of excellence and quality. Although we lead the game so far, we may have to reduce our costs if we compare it to competitors who have the same vision.”

The BIP was organized as an Erasmus + Blended Intensive Programme and consisted of both virtual and face-to-face components; the coordinating and host university was Hanze University Groningen. The BIP “Start Up Simulation Game” is an initiative of the EU Thematic Interest Group (TIG) STARS “Entrepreneurship & Innovation”.

Contact
For more information about the content of this Blended Intensive Programme you can contact Prof. Dr. Stephan Form, Professor for Management and Accounting at HSB Hochschule Bremen.