Title: Virtual outlets – business gaming for fashion retail operations

Authors: Salim Jiwa, Dawn Lavelle, Arjun Rose

Addresses: Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Clothing Design and Technology, Hollings Faculty, Old Hall Lane, Manchester, M14 6HR, UK. ' University of the Arts London, LCC, School of Marketing, Elephant and Castle, London, SE1 6SB, UK. ' University of the Arts London, LCC, School of Marketing, Elephant and Castle, London, SE1 6SB, UK

Abstract: Management is a professional field in which individuals must be able to apply conceptual knowledge to ongoing problems. Thus, the educational challenge is to present the knowledge in such a manner as to both help individuals grasp the importance of that knowledge, and also understand how to apply that information. Educators are constantly striving to bring management education closer to reality, however the media of learning still tends to polarise into two scenarios; lecturing about the theory of business and the training of skills. This polarisation means that the context of learning remains artificial and it still remains difficult to reproduce the characteristics of a practitioner in the classroom by conventional teaching means. Through the modelling and electronic simulation of the fashion retail environment, Virtual Outlets emulates practitioner learning by creating a holistic understanding of the business of retailing by encouraging participants to |learn by doing|.

Keywords: fashion retailing; simulation; supply chain management; SCM; virtual outlets; business gaming; management education; modelling; learn by doing; practitioner learning; visualisation; virtual learning; e-learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2005.007448

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2005 Vol.1 No.1, pp.58 - 73

Published online: 21 Jul 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article