It is used to teach students the concepts of strategic management of multinational businesses in a simulated world of up to four "nations".
[1] Development of management simulation software began at the University of Chicago in the early days of academic computing.
This work led by Hans B. Thorelli and Robert L. Graves resulted in the release in 1963 of the early mainframe game INTOP, which was employed for teaching in over 160 institutions world-wide over the period 1963-1995.
The modern tool INTOPIA was first released in 1995, after a development by an international team over a period of approximately seven years.
The present version of INTOPIA B2B was developed by Thorelli, Graves and Scott McDaniel of Personix (Indianapolis, Indiana).