Quantum is a copyrighted computer program for teaching and learning marketing management and marketing strategy. Quantum permits interactive play among students to simulate the effects of marketing decisions taken in an international market containing up to five countries, where a maximum of 28 companies can compete in a single simulation. This international character is a prominent feature of the simulation. The software Quantum has two components, the “Quantum Student” program used by the participants in the game, and the “Quantum Instructor” program used by licensed instructors to develop the market simulation. Both programs are autonomous yet mutually compatible.

The player directs the department of marketing of a specific business, making a sequence of decisions in a competitive marketing environment based on available information in alternative settings. They apply knowledge from both theory and professional practice and should learn to distribute the budget of the department of marketing among the possible investments in alternatives marketing politics. Each decision represents a year of Quantum competition.

The original Quantum was written by professors Mercedes Esteban-Bravo, Nora Lado-Cousté and Jose M. Vidal-Sanz, based on the latest computational algorithms and marketing theories. The final release was rewritten by Juan José Bello-Tomás in Java. Since them, many other people have joined the Quantum development making substantial contributions.

Here we provide a short introduction to the software “Quantum Students”.

Startup

Quantum is designed to run in any personal computer or laptop with Windows or Mac OS that has installed JAVA. It can be downloaded from authorized distributors.

Before installing Quantum you must ensure that Windows or Mac OS itself is properly running. The installation takes few minutes while files are decompressed. If you install the Quantum Instructor software, the Student software will be simultaneously installed. When you have finished installing the setup program will create a new program group in the program manager. Next we explain what you need to know to start using Quantum.

Quantum Instructor: Once you have installed Quantum Instructor, a valid license password will be required to open the Instructor program. After, it can be opened by clicking on the Quantum Instructor icon in the program manager. Then you will be able to design alternative competition scenarios, generate business files, save the files, open files received from students, access the information received by the players and their decisions, edit the scenario to modify parameters as times goes by, and run the simulation.

Reference Guide

Quantum functions can be easily accessed via pull-down menus associated with the items in the main menu bar along the top of the Quantum window.

Quantum displays its features in separate windows. You can open simultaneously any number of windows (within the limits of you own system resources) to display tables and graphics in them. In the upper right-hand corner of each window, you will see a set of buttons which control the window display. As you work, you may change the size of a window, move it, minimize, restore or close it. Warning: if a decision window is closed without saving, the decisions will be ignored.

Quantum Instructor: The main menu bar contains the menus: “File”, “Analysis”, “Decisions”, “evaluation”, and in the right top corner the “Help” card. Further, there is a central card “simulation and summary” to manage the simulation.

• The “File” pull-down menu where the instructor can “create a new scenario” (to create settings or modify settings of parameters that govern the simulation), “load a scenario” (to work with a previously created scenario), “save companies files” (to save simulation files for the players), and “exit” the program. The scenario setup generation is very rich, allowing the simulation administer to create settings of parameters that govern the simulation including national and international economic parameters (evolutions of Gross Domestic Product, price indices, exchange rates, etc.), market parameters, technology parameters, finances of the businesses (such as costs associated with different products, minimum and maximum marketing budgets), and the influence of some marketing decisions.
• The “Analysis” pull-down menu showing the information received by the players. It includes: “primary information” (market research entrusted specifically), “secondary information”: divided into “internal information” (of internal sources) and “external information”. Students receive the primary information after it has been purchased by them in the previous round of decisions, and the studies can be obtained with high, medium, or low accuracy (with different costs). By contrast, the instructor can see all market research studies in high, average, and low precisions and even without error (this option is not available for the Students). When opening any of these menus, the instructor can access the decisions taken by any player.
• The “Decisions” menu, where the student makes decisions on marketing strategy and operations. The pull-down menu includes: “Brand management and innovation” (where research and development projects for new products and brand management are decided), “product”, “price”, “place”, “promotion”, “market research planning”.
• The “Grading” menu opens a window for company-players overall evaluation using the relative positions of the firms, based on several performance criteria, and computing a weighted mean of these evaluations.
• The “Help” card: These notes have been provided to help users. In addition you can consult the user’s manual for a more comprehensive discussion.
• A distinctive window denoted “simulation and summary” is permanently opened in the centre of the Quantum Instructor main display. The “simulation and summary” windows can be minimized or restored but not closed. It is used to open all the files received from the players. Starting by company A, the instructor can “load” their decision files, and only after the first file has been loaded all the remainder decision files in the competition can be loaded. For each one of them, the instructor can see a “decisions summary” and a “credits and subsidies” menu to study the financial situation of the company and to allow requested subsidies. The “decisions history” can be inspected and the current scenario can be modified using “scenario edit”. Further, a “notes” window can be used to read or write messages between the players and the instructor. After approval, the instructor must “accept” each of the files, and then the simulation can be run by clicking “run simulation”. The results are obtained in few seconds. The “reset” card unload the company files without saving changes, even if the simulation was run. To save files, the “File” pull-down menu must be used.