Serious Games in Entrepreneurship Classroom: Pedagogical Implications and Outcomes

Serious games are increasingly recognized as an effective pedagogical tool in entrepreneurship education, providing experiential learning opportunities to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and skills. This study examines the pedagogical implications of integrating the serious online game Paradox of Theron (POT) into a large entrepreneurship classroom at a Malaysian university. A total of 332 undergraduate students from diverse disciplines, supported by six tutors, engaged in the game for over 21 days. At the end of the semester, data was collected from 256 students and five tutors through closed- and open-ended surveys to evaluate the game’s impact on students’ entrepreneurial mindset, skill development, and overall learning experience. Thematic analysis revealed that POT positively impacts students’ entrepreneurial mindset and skill acquisition. These findings highlight the importance of pairing serious games with structured pedagogical support to foster students’ development of entrepreneurial mindset and skills. The study also noted that some students’ learning through POT was affected by unclear guidelines, insufficient support resources, and limited opportunities for reflection and feedback. Recommendations include the need for a realistic student-tutor ratio, bite-size video tutorials on how to play POT, and the integration of debriefing, and guided reflection to help students make meaningful connections between gameplay and entrepreneurial concepts. Limitations related to context, sampling, and reliance on self-reported data suggest the need for future research across diverse educational settings using mixed-methods or longitudinal approaches. Such studies could further examine how pedagogical design influences learning outcomes and guide more effective implementation of serious games in entrepreneurship education.