A team of three Coastal Carolina University Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) students have ranked 19th in the world in a business strategy simulation they participated in as part of a summer class at CCU. The ongoing competition is held weekly, and Coastal was recognized for its performance in the contest held during the week ending July 22.

Sean Beaty of Conway and John Griffiths and David Yi, both of Myrtle Beach, were excited and surprised when they learned the news from their professor, Darla Domke-Damonte, who is teaching Strategic and International Issues in Management. A total of 938 teams from 63 colleges and universities worldwide participate in the business simulation competition each week.

"This is a significant achievement," said John Lox, director of the M.B.A. program at Coastal's Wall College of Business, "not only for the individual students, but for what it says about Coastal's M.B.A., which has just completed its first year."

Eighteen students are enrolled in the class, which is divided into eight teams of students. As a part of the course requirements, each student team runs a fictitious company that competes head-to-head with the other teams to produce and sell branded and private label athletic footwear across four regions - North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe-Africa and Latin America.

In the last year, the Business Strategy Game business simulation has been used at 366 colleges/universities worldwide. The simulation focuses on teaching students to craft and execute strategy across a complex organization by making decisions involving everything from brand development to finance, operation and capital budgets.

"We look forward to the continued success of our M.B.A. students, not only in their simulated business performance, but in their abilities to bring world class performance to the organizations in which they are working," said Domke-Damonte.