Beat The Market is an online business simulation game published and developed by
Gold Simulations. It runs in a
web browserA web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
on
MacintoshMac OS is the trademarked name for a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
and
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
.
The goal in
Beat The Market is to become the most profitable firm by applying economic concepts in a variety of "real world" market environments. Beat The Market also includes a set of exercises covering these topics, market equilibrium,
demand-Economics:*Demand ,the desire to own something and the ability to pay for it*Demand curve,a graphic representation of a demand schedule*Demand deposit, the money in checking accounts...
,
elasticityIn economics, elasticity is the ratio of the percent change in one variable to the percent change in another variable. It is a tool for measuring the responsiveness of a function to changes in parameters in a relative way. Commonly analyzed are elasticity of substitution, price and wealth...
,
productionIn microeconomics, industrial organization is the field which describes the behavior of firms in the marketplace with regard to production, pricing, employment and other decisions...
,
long-runIn economic models, the long-run time frame assumes no fixed factors of production. Firms can enter or leave the marketplace, and the cost of land, labor, raw materials, and capital goods can be assumed to vary. In contrast, in the short-run time frame, certain factors are assumed to be fixed,...
and
short-run costsIn economics, the concept of the short-run refers to the decision-making time frame of a firm in which at least one factor of production is fixed. Costs which are fixed in the short-run have no impact on a firms decisions...
,
revenue maximizationYield management, also known as revenue management, is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, perishable resource . This process was first discovered by Dr. Matt H...
,
perfect competitionIn neoclassical economics and microeconomics, perfect competition describes the perfect being a market in which there are many small firms, all producing homogeneous goods...
,
monopolyIn economics, a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it...
,
monopolistic competitionMonopolistic competition is a common market structure where many competing producers sell products that are differentiated from one another . Many markets are monopolistically competitive, common examples include the markets for restaurants, cereal, clothing, shoes and service industries in large...
, and
oligopolyAn oligopoly is a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers . The word is derived, by analogy with "monopoly", from the Greek oligoi 'few' and poleein 'to sell'. Because there are few sellers, each oligopolist is likely to be aware of the actions of the...
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Players compete against computer firms in single player mode and against other people as well as computers in multi-player mode. Each player makes between 2 and eight economic decisions each quarter depending on the learning level. The decisions include, price, production, advertising, plant size, process improvements, product development, training, or e-commerce.
The original version of Beat The Market was Microsoft Windows only software that had to be installed on a computer. The online version was developed and released as
Beat The Market Online on 10 August 2007, featuring automatic grading of games and exercises, progress reports and real time multiplayer functionality.
Modes
Beat The Market has 2 game modes; Test, and Practice. Test mode creates a unique game environment by randomizing starting conditions. Practice mode uses the same starting conditions each time enabling different strategies to be evaluated with the same market environment.
Learning Level
Different levels can be selected to limit the number of supply and demand decisions that must be made each quarter of the simulation. The minimum number of decisions is 2 and the maximum is 8.
Course Level
There are two course level choices, Principles and Advanced. The "Principles" level limits the number of decisions each firm must make to a maximum of four. More advanced courses may select the "Advanced" course level to allow a maximum of eight decisions.
Single or Multi-player
A single player game is played by one person competing against other computer managed firms. A multi-player game is played by multiple people competing against each other as well as other computer managed firms.
Consultant
The consultant guides players by providing insight (not answers) for areas that may be able to be improved by making better decisions.
Graphing
There are many graphs throughout the simulation which provide relevant information based on the page being viewed. For example, the "Price Information" page shows a graph of marginal revenue and marginal cost. There is also a graphing page which enables the user to create custom graphs to view and analyze information. Some of the variables you can graph include, demand, production, marginal revenue, marginal cost, average variable costs, etc.
Reports
To analyze your firms performance in the simulation there are four reports available, profit report, demand & supply report, market research & macroeconomic report, and competitive analysis report. A button in the reports section can export all the simulation data to excel for further analysis.
Exercises
A set of exercises is included in the simulation covering these topics, market equilibrium, demand, elasticity, production, long-run and short-run costs, revenue maximization, perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly. Any or all exercises can be assigned with due dates. Once the due date has expired the grades appear in the instructors gradebook for all their students. Students can check their own grades for each exercise and game within their own personal gradebook.
Gradebook
There is a gradebook for the instructor and the student. The instructor gradebook shows the grades for all assigned games and exercises. Games assigned as practice do not appear in the gradebook. The student gradebook similarly shows all the grades for that students games and exercises.
Progress Report
A progress report is available for each assigned game that shows how each student is doing and how much of that game has been completed. A chart on the progress report page summarizes this data. The instructor can enter a students game by clicking the "view" button. Once inside the game you can see everything the student sees when they enter the game including the decisions they have made so far and what the consultant recommends.
External links