The Impact of The Classroom Environment of ERP Business Simulation on College Students' Innovative Ability

Caina Liu; Jian Lu

doi:https://doi.org/10.64025/j.lmjim.25.217032

Abstract

Based on Bandura's social cognitive theory, this study investigates the impact mechanism of the ERP sand table simulation classroom environment on college students' Innovative ability, with a specific focus on the mediating role of self-efficacy. A theoretical model was constructed with the classroom environment as the independent variable, self-efficacy as the mediator, and Innovative ability as the dependent variable, systematically examining the direct effects of the physical and learning environment dimensions on Innovative ability, as well as their indirect pathways through self-efficacy. Methods: A questionnaire survey was administered to students participating in ERP sand table simulation courses across multiple Chinese universities. Data from 238 valid questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 for descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and Bootstrap mediation effect testing. Results: The overall ERP sand table simulation classroom environment significantly and positively predicted college students' Innovative ability. The learning environment not only directly promoted Innovative ability but also exerted a partial mediating effect through self-efficacy. In contrast, the physical environment exhibited only a direct effect, with its mediating path being non-significant. Further analysis revealed that factors within the learning environment, such as interactive support, task challenge, and psychological safety, effectively enhanced students' self-efficacy, thereby strengthening their innovative performance. Significance: This study confirms the psychological mechanism through which the classroom environment influences Innovative ability via self-efficacy, deepening the understanding of the role of social cognitive factors in innovation education. Practically, it is suggested that when developing simulation-based courses, universities should prioritize optimizing instructional design to enhance teacher-student interaction and task challenge, thereby boosting students' self-efficacy and innovative literacy, while ensuring the functionality of the physical environment. Theoretically, the research extends the application of social cognitive theory to educational contexts and provides empirical evidence for research on innovation education mechanisms. Future research could incorporate longitudinal designs to further explore mechanism differences across various backgrounds.

Highlight

* Identifies a Differential Mediation Mechanism: Reveals that self-efficacy acts as a significant mediator between the learning environment and Innovative ability, but not between the physical environment and Innovative ability, offering a nuanced understanding of how different classroom environment dimensions operate. * Applies and Extends Social Cognitive Theory in a Novel Context: Empirically tests and validates Bandura's triadic reciprocal model within the specific setting of ERP simulation-based education, demonstrating its utility in explaining innovation development. * Decouples Classroom Environment into Distinct Dimensions: Moves beyond a holistic view by systematically investigating the unique roles of physical (resource-based) and learning (socio-psychological) environment facets, providing granular insights for educational design. * Offers Evidence-Based Guidance for Instructional Design: Provides concrete recommendations for educators to prioritize the optimization of interactive and psychologically supportive learning elements over mere physical upgrades to effectively foster student innovation. * Highlights the Primacy of Psycho-Social Factors: Demonstrates that the learning environment's total effect on innovation is substantially stronger than that of the physical environment, underscoring the critical role of teacher-student interaction and task design.

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1. Introduction

With the continuous advancement of education and societal development, the role of the classroom environment in cultivating students' Innovative ability is garnering increasing attention. Against the backdrop of intensifying global technological competition and the deepening knowledge-based economy, Innovative ability has become a crucial standard for measuring individual comprehensive quality and even national competitiveness. Higher education institutions, as the primary battlefield for talent development, bear the significant mission of supplying society with talents possessing innovative spirit and practical ability. The classroom environment, being a key venue for systematically cultivating students' knowledge, skills, innovative thinking, and comprehensive quality, profoundly impacts students' cognitive development, behavioral shaping, and the nurturing of Innovative ability through its design and implementation quality.

In recent years, contextualized teaching models, represented by simulated practice, have gradually become an important direction for teaching reform in higher education. Among these, the ERP Enterprise Operation Simulation course, as an integrated interdisciplinary teaching platform, is widely used in practical course systems for business and management disciplines in universities globally. ERP sand table simulation is a teaching tool that simulates the entire operational process of an enterprise, including procurement, production, sales, and finance, through physical sand tables or digital systems. Centered on "experiential learning," it allows students to play roles such as CEO and CFO. Through decision-making involving production planning, resource allocation, and responding to market changes, students understand ERP management logic. It integrates interdisciplinary knowledge (economics, management, finance), offers practicality (replicating real enterprise dilemmas), and emphasizes interactivity (team collaboration), rapidly enhancing students' strategic decision-making and problem-solving abilities.Such courses construct a composite learning field integrating decision analysis, resource integration, teamwork, and risk management through highly simulated enterprise operation environments and immersive task design. Students assume management roles in the simulation, confront market changes, formulate business strategies, and respond to emergent risks, thereby gaining deep learning experiences close to real business scenarios. However, although ERP simulation teaching significantly enhances students' practical operational skills and systems thinking, current research pays less attention to its mechanism of action in promoting the development of students' deeper abilities—particularly Innovative ability. Existing literature often focuses on the impact of simulation teaching on knowledge acquisition or teamwork, lacking systematic empirical exploration of how it affects students' psychological cognitive mechanisms through classroom environment design, ultimately driving innovative behavior. The cultivation of Innovative ability relies not only on the provision of a technical environment but also involves the combined action of multidimensional factors such as cognitive stimulation, motivational guidance, and psychological empowerment.

Based on this background, this study uses the "environment-cognition-behavior" triadic reciprocal model from Bandura's social cognitive theory as its theoretical framework to examine the pathways through which the ERP simulation classroom environment affects students' Innovative ability. This theory emphasizes the dynamic interaction between environment, individual cognition, and behavior, particularly highlighting the mediating role of individual subjective cognition in translating external environmental stimuli into specific behaviors. From this perspective, this study introduces self-efficacy—i.e., an individual's belief in their capability to complete a certain task—as a mediating variable, attempting to reveal how the ERP classroom environment stimulates innovative performance by enhancing students' self-belief. Specifically, the research divides the classroom environment into physical and learning environment dimensions, examining their differential impact paths on student self-efficacy and Innovative ability, thereby constructing an integrated theoretical model linking environmental support, psychological mechanisms, and behavioral output. This study not only helps deepen the theoretical understanding of the formation mechanism of Innovative ability in simulated classroom environments but also provides a solid empirical basis for universities promoting teaching reform and optimizing practical course design. By clarifying the bridging role of self-efficacy between environment and innovative behavior, this study offers operable strategies for university teachers to design more motivating and supportive classroom environments, ultimately achieving the educational goal of "nurturing innovation through environment, promoting behavior through cognition." ...

CRedit authorship contribution statement

Liu Caina:Writing - original draft, Supervision, Investigation,Formal analysis. Lu Jian:Writing - review & editing, Data curation, Conceptualization.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors declare that the following financial support was received for this research, writing and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the project “Innovative Entrepreneurship Curriculum-Professional Internship C (Enterprise Business Simulation Practical Training) of the Department of Education of Hebei Province in the year of 2023, Project No. 338, No. 86 of Hebei Education High-ranking Letter [2023]”

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The Impact of The Classroom Environment of ERP Business Simulation on College Students' Innovative Ability

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