Students often find it difficult to grasp the practical implications of resource allocation, as it requires an in-depth understanding of both tangible and intangible assets and their strategic value. In teaching entrepreneurship, finding practical methods to demonstrate theoretical concepts can greatly enhance student comprehension and retention. One such critical concept is understanding core resources, sustainable competitive advantage and strategic resources, topics that spans entrepreneurship, strategic management, and innovation management. By enhancing their standard for education, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have the opportunity to engage in different teaching approaches and activities to drive students’ entrepreneurial journey.
Traditional teaching methods can struggle to effectively convey these complexities, making it hard for students to relate theoretical knowledge to real-world applications. This is where the use of deckbuilding card games becomes an appealing and innovative tool for education. These games offer an engaging and interactive way to simulate real-life scenarios, allowing students to experience firsthand the importance of strategic decision-making and resource management. Through this approach, students learn valuable lessons about prioritizing, investing in, and divesting resources to achieve optimal outcomes, which are crucial skills in the entrepreneurial journey.
Internal resource analysis?
The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, as defined by Barney (2001), posits that a company’s competitive advantage stems from its unique resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. For entrepreneurs, this means understanding and leveraging these strategic resources to differentiate their ventures and sustain long-term success (Huang & Knight, 2017). Effective entrepreneurial practice involves identifying which resources are core to building competitive advantage and strategically managing them to support growth and innovation (Wagner et al., 2016).
One of the key lessons from this course is recognizing that resources are essential at every stage of entrepreneurial activity. Financial constraints are frequently cited as a barrier to entry into entrepreneurship. However, even when resources are available, poor management or a lack of understanding of which resources are strategically vital versus those needed for basic operations can hinder success. This distinction between core and strategic resources is critical for building a sustainable business model. Students come to understand that while financial resources are important, other types of resources—such as human capital, intellectual property, and strategic partnerships—are equally significant in the pursuit of long-term goals.
What’s the problem with teaching resource analysis?
Data! Internal resource analysis needs access to audit information, internal information to understand how resources are interconnected and contribute to competitive advantage. In practice, analysing a company’s internal resources and conducting effective audits is more complex (nearly impossible!) than performing external analysis, where data collection is relatively straightforward.
By playing a game, students are tasked with making real-time decisions on resource allocation. They must discern which resources to retain, invest in, or trade off to advance in the game, ultimately learning the crucial skill of distinguishing between essential and non-essential resources. The game creates a dynamic learning environment where students face limited resources, competitive pressures, and the necessity of quick, strategic thinking. They experience firsthand the challenges of balancing immediate needs with long-term benefits, an essential aspect of entrepreneurial decision-making.
What are deckbuilding games?
Deck-building games are a type of card game where players start with a minimal set of cards and gradually build a more powerful deck by acquiring, selling, and trading new cards from a shared pool. These games require strategic thinking as players must make choices on which cards to add to their deck to maximize their effectiveness and achieve victory. The process simulates resource management, as players need to balance their acquisitions and use of cards to optimize performance while adapting to changing circumstances. There is not one better resource: it’s how students combine resources that makes a winning strategy, one that gives a competitive advantage.
There are many resource management board games (worker placement games), but they often come with complex rules and high costs. Card games, on the other hand, are more manageable, facilitate card exchanges, and symbolically represent resources, making them a more accessible tool for teaching strategic resource management.
In contrast to many computer-aided simulations, card games allow for interactive sessions that are easy to set up and maintain the essence of real games, adding a fun element to the learning process. I choose a game that is not related to entrepreneurship but is based on popular comics and movies that all students are familiar with. Additionally, while playing, students can use their own laptops to optimize their strategies, which enhances interaction and facilitates group building.
What do students get out of this?
Playing such a game highlights a critical insight often overlooked by entrepreneurs and managers: understanding not only what resources are necessary for minimal performance but also identifying those that are strategically indispensable. This knowledge can make the difference between surviving in a competitive market and thriving as a leader in the industry. Moreover, students learn to recognize which resources they do not need and the potential opportunity costs of misallocated resources, thereby reinforcing the importance of strategic resource management in entrepreneurial practice.
Students often reflect on how this exercise changes their perception of resource utilization. A follow-up session involving discussion, conceptualization, and development using traditional economic examples is, of course, necessary. They begin to see that having more resources is not always the solution; rather, it is the strategic use and prioritization of available resources that drives success. For instance, a company that invests in every available opportunity, without considering the strategic value of those investments, risks spreading itself too thin and failing to achieve impactful outcomes. The game emphasizes that in both entrepreneurship and strategic management, the ability to say “no” to certain opportunities is as valuable as pursuing the right ones.
Takeaways
Incorporating a session of deck-building games into my entrepreneurship curriculum gives the early-stage students hands-on experience in applying complex theoretical concepts. This approach simplifies the understanding of resource management and equips students with practical skills to think critically and make strategic decisions in real-world scenarios. Gamified learning shapes universities’ standard for education, driving and enabling a new generation of entrepreneurs.
Barney, J. B. (2001). Resource-based theories of competitive advantage : A ten-year retrospective on the resource-based view. Journal of Management, 27(6), 643. https://doi.org/Article
Huang, L., & Knight, A. P. (2017). Resources and Relationships in Entrepreneurship : An Exchange Theory of the Development and Effects of the Entrepreneur-Investor Relationship. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), 80‑102. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0397
Wagner, M., Valls-Pasola, J., & Burger-Helmchen, T. (2016). The Global Management of Creativity. Routledge.
.
Image courtesy of author