Four teams of business students cracked the top 100 in an international Business Strategy Game that involved more than 9,400 teams from more than 400 colleges. The performance of the teams, based on Return on Equity (ROE) of fictitious footwear companies that they operated, placed them in the top one percent of all teams that entered the competition.

The Business Strategy Game (BSG) casts students in the role of company managers, who are responsible for decisions regarding production operations, shipping and inventory management, corporate social responsibility, pricing and marketing, financing, worker compensation, and other aspect of business management. Teams from Canada, Europe, Mexico and the United States entered the 2014 competition.

Fifteen students from Dr. Robert Till’s Strategic Management class managed the four top-100 teams, which achieved Return on Equity results that ranged from 41.5% to 48.3%

According to the BSG website, the contest is “a competition-based strategy simulation where the outcomes are always unique to the competitive interplay among the specific decisions and strategies of each group of competing companies.” There is no secret set of strategic moves that works every time.

Only two universities in the global competition placed more teams in the top 100 than Neumann: Universidad Technologica de Mexico (10) and the University of Alabama (7). Neumann and four other colleges placed four teams in the top group.

The Neumann teams, with final rankings, are:

Fun Footwear (41st) – Rich Harrington (Mantua, NJ), Alex Lacko (Allentown, PA), Tim McCrane (Philadelphia, PA), and Corey Smith (Philadelphia, PA)

Best Footwear (tied for 48th) – Justin Brydges (Philadelphia, PA), Shaunagh Devlin (Magherafelt, Ireland), Kimberly Hyland (Sicklerville, NJ), and Matt Mazzarolo (Surrey, BC, Canada)

Global Athletics (51st) – John Clifford (Staten Island, NY), Danielle Donahue (Broomall, PA), Kenny Hall (Lewes, DE), and Eric Meshirer (Medford, NJ)

A Company (95th) – Rosie Kays (Palmyra, PA), Briana King (Fieldsboro, NJ), and Rene Springer (Bear, DE)

Dr. Till, a resident of Wayne, PA, holds degrees from St. Bonaventure University (BBA), the University of Notre Dame (MBA) and the University of Massachusetts (Ph.D.). Prior to receiving his Ph.D., he was a managing director in the Investment Banking Division of JP Morgan Chase where he was employed for more than 20 years. His research interests include organizational justice, pay satisfaction, fairness theory, and ethics.