Design of an Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation for Training Small Businesses in South Africa: Storyline and Content

Abstract

Traditional training has little success in developing businesses or including them in digital participation in the face of technological advancements. Immersive virtual reality simulations, however, have shown positive and effective results in other disciplines. Small businesses continue to underperform and lack the capabilities critical to success. In the face of high unemployment, small businesses are considered job creators, accounting for about 63% of jobs in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and therefore urgently need training in entrepreneurial skills in a transformational manner. This paper presents the role-play and content of an immersive virtual reality (VR) simulation for small business training in South Africa and evaluates its relevance and effectiveness. The expected outcomes of this immersive virtual reality simulation are a comprehensive understanding and real-time experience of learning and executing core business skills, self-confidence, and readiness to run businesses with the right mindset. The storyline and content design presented in this paper are qualitative and narrative, while the evaluation of these two is quantitative; hence, a mixed methodology was used. The evaluation was conducted through questionnaire feedback from fifty small business owners and secondary data from the literature.

Keywords: Immersive environments, virtual reality, simulation, small business, training, entrepreneurship, AI.