Using the premise of a fictional earbud company, “EarWorm,” students in an introductory management course become EarWorm managers who problem-solve and make decisions about the best choices for their company. This article outlines this engaging and participatory exercise in detail. Students are able to directly connect course concepts to EarWorm’s challenges in an active model that gives them ownership over their company’s fate. Appendices to the article provide related active learning activities using the EarWorm premise, which can serve as instructional modules to help students explore key management concepts related to global business and organization design.
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