The aim of this research was to build a conceptual model for business games focusing on the main decisions an entrepreneur faces during the new venture creation stage. The decisions were captured from the literature focused on the process of creating a new business. They were modeled using the influence diagram method and confirmed by American and Brazilian specialists. The resulting conceptual model proposed for building a simulator was compared to two other academic simulators. This research has three contributions: a model for an entrepreneurship simulator with conceptual validity, identification of decisions not present or partially present in academic simulators, and an adjustment of the game for the Brazilian context. The proposed model aims to stimulate the practice of decisions and management concepts in Entrepreneurship courses. This research is being further developed through mathematical modeling and testing in classrooms.
entrepreneurship; decisions; simulator; business games
