Teaching the concepts of servitization using a serious gaming approach

Businesses in every industry are affected by progressing globalization and intensifying competition. Firms' leaders need skills to find new ways to create revenue and to evolve their business models continuously. Students should therefore be prepared to become tomorrow's firm leaders with education on business concepts in business transformation. This paper aims to analyze the effectiveness of introducing high school students to the concept of servitization with the serious game SwipeBike@TUM. SwipeBike@TUM was developed to apply business transformations in a game atmosphere while still be appealing at the same time. Within the game, the player takes up the role of C-Level Management to transform a bicycle manufacturer into a service provider through several business stages. The overall learning process is described by learning objectives and covers theoretical and practical parts. The evaluation with 29 students showed that SwipeBike@TUM improved their knowledge and self-evaluation of business models and transformation. For research, we contribute by demonstrating that serious gaming is a suitable teaching approach.