The Decision Simulation study is designed to expose
you to a collection of business simulations ending in a document for your approval or disapproval.
Each simulation begins with the description of your role in the situation. For example you might
be a product manager at a company or perhaps an account supervisor. You will then see
a set of short business documents relevant to a decision to be made. Examples include short emails or memoranda, company
policy documents, etc. The last thing you will see is the final document which you will be asked to either
approve or reject given your role in the scenario. This study includes two surveys, one before you begin the simulations
and a very short survey at the end.
Thank you for filling out the surveys. You will now be
presented with six simulations. Each simulation will consist of a
collection of documents to review followed by a document to either
approve or reject.
After the six six simulations you will be presented with one more short
simulation with a description of the scenario and another document to either approve or
reject.
Your work as the controller in a regional sales office at the Rock Climb
Chemical corporation. You are responsible for approving sales reports for
consolidation into the quarterly finanical reports for your division.
You will be presented with a series of documents. They include emails relevant
to determining what revenue should be counted within this quarter, a sales order
from a customer who made a very recent purchase, and an invoice corresponding to the
sales order. Following these docouments will
be a sales report for a group in the division for which you are responsible. It is important to you to maintain
a good relationship with yoru boss, the sales vice president for yoru division, so you are
hoping that you can approve this sales report without any changes. Though you work for
the sales group, you work closely with the corporate controllers office as these
reports will ultimately feed into the company's overall financial reports. Their
opinion is also very important to you.
Please Please press the 'Continue to Materials" button to look over the documents and when finished proceed to the sales report.
if everything looks correct, approve
the sales report by clicking the approve button at the bottom of the invoice
page. If you believe you have found an error, you may reject the
invoice by pressing the reject button.
*This scenario and the associated materials were adapted
from case OVA-OB-1104 “Be Careful What You Wish For: From the Middled”
of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. The original case was developed by Mary Gentile
Now at the University of Virginia. It was based on actual
field experience but the names and other situational details were
changed. To learn more about GVV
and obtain the original source materials go to
http://www.darden.virginia.edu/ibis/initiatives/giving-voice-to-values/.
No part of these materials may be altered or reproduced without
permission.
Please review the four documents in the windows below. There
are
two emails, and a completed customer sales order.
When finished scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the sales report for
approval/rejection or return to the description of the scenario.
Please accept or reject this sales order by pressing the appropriate
button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish, you may return to the materials to review them again by
pressing the 'Return to Materials' button.
You are a product manager working for a manufacturer of child and infant foods.
Your company makes baby food, baby formula and nutritional supplements for children of all ages.
You are responsible for infant formula and supplements. Each year you are required to produce a sales forecast.
As before you will be presented with a series of documents. They include a collection of emails relevant
to determining the sales outlook in the coming year.
Following these emails will
be a forecast prepared by your assistant for you to approve or reject.
Your product is in a mature market and seldom experiences much growth,
however there is a new trend where adults are using your supplements as part of a detoxification/cleanse program designed to help foster a healthy lifestyle.
This is very exciting news as it would grow the supplement business by more than 50%.
Because of this trend the product can be sold in health, nutrition and exercise supply stores.
The profit margins in those stores are higher.
Your boss is the vice president of product management and he is eager for you to submit an optimistic forecast as quickly as possible as it will increase his promotion budget for the coming year.
Please Please press the "Continue to Materials" button to look over the documents and when finished proceed to the sales forecast.
if everything looks correct, approve
the sales forecast by clicking the approve button at the bottom of the invoice
page. If you believe you have found an error, you may reject the
forecast by pressing the reject button.
This scenario and the associated materials were adapted with permission from case OVA-OB-1166
“Product Safety and (Preemptive) Recalls” of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum.
The original case was inspired by the readings: Nash, Laura L (2006).
“Decision 1. Marketing Baby Oil at Johnson & Johnson,” in Good Intentions Aside.
A Manager’s Guide to Resolving Ethical Problems, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, pp 83-85
and, Vagelos, Roy and Louis Galambos (2006). The Moral Corporation, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp 57-76.
The case was prepared by Daniel G. Acred, Ph.D., Dept of Economics, School of Economics, Political and Policy Sciences,
the university of Texas at Dallas and Mary Gentile, now at the University of Virginia.
It was based on actual field experience but the names and other situational details were changed.
To learn more about GVV and obtain the original source materials go to
http://www.darden.virginia.edu/ibis/initiatives/giving-voice-to-values/.
No part of these materials may be altered or reproduced without permission
Please review the three emails in the windows below.
When finished scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the sales report for
approval/rejection or return to the description of the scenario.
Please accept or reject this sales order by pressing the appropriate
button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish, you may return to the materials to review them again by
pressing the 'Return to Materials' button.
You are an accounting supervisor at the TopHome Kitchen Appliance firm.
You work in the sales organization for the V,P. Jerry Price.
You are responsible for approving or disapproving customer invoices.
The materials given to you include an invoice for a retail store called “The Kitchen Store”
for products delivered to them along with the matching sales order.
Also included are a set of emails that may be relevant to your decision
to approve or reject the invoice.
Please press the "Continue to Materials" button to look over the documents and when finished proceed to the invoice.
if everything looks correct, approve
the invoice by clicking the approve button at the bottom of the invoice
page. If you believe you have found an error, you may reject the
invoice by pressing the reject button.
Please review the three documents in the windows below. There
are
two emails and a customer sales order.
When finished scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the final invoice for
approval/rejection or return to the description of the scenario.
Please accept or reject this invoice by pressing the appropriate
button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish, you may return to the materials to review them again by
pressing the 'Return to Materials' button.
Your name is Chris Brown and you work as an assistant controller in the sales office at the AllGlobe Telecommunications company, one of the largest providers of phone services in the world.
You and sales manager Bill Jones report to the same vice president who likes Bill very much.
You are responsible for approving sales data for inclusion in the quarterly financial reports. Last quarter, the company offered a special promotion.
Any customer who signed up for their new web interface for voice mail service would get the first three months for free.
With this service phone users can go to a company specific website, see a list of recorded messages, and play them on their computer from anywhere they can get an internet connection.
If the customer is unhappy with the new service they can cancel it at any time without being charged at any time during the first three months.
Otherwise the service will cost $25 per month per line.
Any sales group that sold these services to 10 or more customers in the quarter will receive a special bonus.
The materials given to you include a report for a group in one of the divisions you are responsible for
as well as some emails relevant to determining how the sales group performed their activity in the last three months.
Please press the "Continue to Materials" button to look over the documents and when finished proceed to the sales report.
if everything looks correct, approve
the sales report by clicking the approve button at the bottom of the invoice
page. If you believe you have found an error, you may reject the
invoice by pressing the reject button.
Please review the three emails in the windows below.
When finished scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the sales report for
approval/rejection or return to the description of the scenario.
Please accept or reject this sales report by pressing the appropriate
button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish, you may return to the materials to review them again by
pressing the 'Return to Materials' button.
Your name is Jamie Height and you are a product manager working for Soft-facto Inc., a large software company that sells “middleware” primarily to large businesses.
You are specifically responsible for software that assists in the manufacturing process by tracking parts, work in progress and inventory across multiple suppliers and vendors.
You are also responsible for a new product. It is a “cloud” service. Normally companies buy your software and run it on their computers. With this new service, you would run your software
for them on computers owned by Soft-facto. Customers would connect to your computers, store their data on them and do their processing on your computers for an annual fee.
Your boss is the vice president of product management and he is eager for you to submit an optimistic forecast as quickly as possible as it will justify his hiring plan for the next year.
Without this increase he will not be able to hire the people he feels are needed in your group and your workload will be higher.
The materials given to you include a forecast prepare by your assistant as well as some emails relevant to the preparation of the forecast.
Please press the "Continue to Materials" button to look over the documents and when finished proceed to the sales forecast.
if everything looks correct, approve
the sales forecast by clicking the approve button at the bottom of the invoice
page. If you believe you have found an error, you may reject the
forecast by pressing the reject button.
This scenario and the associated materials were adapted with permission from case OVA-OB-1166
“Product Safety and (Preemptive) Recalls” of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum.
The original case was inspired by the readings: Nash, Laura L (2006).
“Decision 1. Marketing Baby Oil at Johnson & Johnson,” in Good Intentions Aside.
A Manager’s Guide to Resolving Ethical Problems, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, pp 83-85
and, Vagelos, Roy and Louis Galambos (2006). The Moral Corporation, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp 57-76.
The case was prepared by Daniel G. Acred, Ph.D., Dept of Economics, School of Economics, Political and Policy Sciences,
the university of Texas at Dallas and Mary Gentile, now at the University of Virginia.
It was based on actual field experience but the names and other situational details were changed.
To learn more about GVV and obtain the original source materials go to
http://www.darden.virginia.edu/ibis/initiatives/giving-voice-to-values/.
No part of these materials may be altered or reproduced without permission
Please review the three emails in the windows below.
When finished scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the sales report for
approval or return to the description of the scenario.
Please accept or reject this sales order by pressing the appropriate
button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish, you may return to the materials to review them again by
pressing the 'Return to Materials' button.
You are an accounts payable supervisor at the Acme accounting
firm. You are responsible for approving or disapproving customer
invoices. You will be presented with a collection of documents.
They will include several emails on which you were copied and the
standard services price list for the firm. The emails document
the various services performed by employees of Acme on behalf of ABC
and should be reflected in the invoice. Following
these documents will be an invoice to the ABC company for services
rendered. To see the invoice you will need to push the button at the bottom
of the page that says 'Continue to Invoice.'
Please press the "Continue to Materials" button to look over the documents and when finished proceed to the invoice.
if everything looks correct, approve
the invoice by clicking the approve button at the bottom of the invoice
page. If you believe you have found an error, you may reject the
invoice by pressing the reject button .
*This scenario and the associated materials were adapted
from case OVA-OB-1140 “A Billing Bind” of the Giving Voice to Values
(GVV) curriculum. The original case was developed by Ellen Mrowka
and Jessica McManus Warnell, University of Notre Dame and Karen
Whelan-Berry, Providence College. It was based on an actual
internship experience but the names and other situational details were
changed. Also, interview sources were left uncredited, with
permission, to preserve confidentiality. To learn more about GVV
and obtain the original source materials go to
http://www.darden.virginia.edu/ibis/initiatives/giving-voice-to-values/.
No part of these materials may be altered or reproduced without
permission.
Please review the five documents in the windows below. There
are
four emails and a price list.
When finished scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the final invoice for
approval/rejection or return to the description of the scenario.
Please accept or reject this invoice by pressing the appropriate
button at the bottom of the page.
If you wish, you may return to the materials to review them again by
pressing the 'Return to Materials' button.
Please press the button below corresponding to the money you believe you have earned (in dollars) based on the decisions you have made.
Thank you for participating in the prior six simulations. We have just one more simulation for you followed by a very short survey.
The final situation is shorter involving just a description followed by the document or approve or reject.
/* PUT A BUTTON HERE TO ADVANCE BASED ON CONDITION */
Please memorize the following number and keep it in your head. You will be asked to report on it at the end of the experiment
37264350
When you have memorized the number press "Continue" to view the scenario
You are a product manager working for UltraServer Inc., a large technology company. You are specifically responsible for a line of high end computer systems
and among your duties is the annual sales forecast. There are two types of sales people in your unit, general sellers who sell all the products, and dedicated
sellers who sell only your products. Dedicated sellers are much more effective. They sell more units and sell at a higher profit.
Due to some strategic changes, the general manager of your group has reallocated the dedicated sales staff.
He has cut the number of sellers who sell your product in half. He has also altered the compensation model for the general sellers.
The commission on other products made by your unit will go up while the commission on your products will go down.
This may make sense for the company but it will definitely lower the revenue and the net profit for your products.
The general sellers will sell fewer of your products because of the compensation change and there will be fewer dedicated sellers as well.
Though the CFO has warned product managers against making optimistic forecasts, you are being pressured by your boss- the VP of product management - to
deliver a sales forecast that shows an increase in units and profit. The CEO expects this and he is unaware of the changes made by the general manager
of your group. He is also known to make life very difficult for any VP who delivers a sales forecast with any reductions in units or revenue for any product.
Your boss says that you should submit a high forecast and see how it goes. If the sales come in below forecast you can deal with it then.
He makes it clear that doing this now will result in a better performance appraisal for you and a higher raise, all of which will occur before anyone knows the sales results.
When youu have finished reading the scenario scroll to the bottom of the page and press the button to
view the sales forecast for approval or rejections.
Thank you for your participation. To help with our administation please tell us how many documents you accepted and rejected and what you believe you should be paid.
When finished, push the button below to end the experiment.