Research on Influencing Factors in the Cultivation of Business Students' Professional Quality through Enterprise Competition Simulation

Abstract

With the growing emphasis on experiential and practice-oriented learning in higher business education, Business Competition Simulation (BCS) projects have become a prominent pedagogical innovation. However, the mechanisms through which such competitive simulations enhance students’ professional competencies remain under-explored. Drawing upon Experiential Learning Theory and Tournament Theory, this study develops a chained mediation model linking competition intensity, team interaction quality, and feedback effectiveness to students’ professional competence via learning engagement. A quasi-experimental design was adopted with 188 undergraduate business students (94 experimental; 94 control) at a leading Chinese “Double First-Class” university. Pre-war and post-test survey data were analyzed using ANCOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that: (1) Participation in BCS significantly enhances four core competencies—strategic decision-making, data analysis, teamwork, and stress adaptation—beyond traditional case-based teaching; (2) Team interaction quality and feedback effectiveness are the principal drivers of competence development, whereas competitive intensity shows no direct effect; and (3) Learning engagement fully mediates the effects of interaction quality and feedback effectiveness on competence improvement. The findings advance theoretical understanding of experiential business education and provide actionable implications for curriculum design and pedagogical management in business schools.