STRATEGY, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT - 1

The course is one of the core educational activities of the curriculum of "Business administration". The main goal of the course is to provide an advanced understanding of innovation dynamics, and in particular of those managerial aspects related to the involved organizational processes.
The course analyzes how business organizations develop their knowledge and resource base in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. The course provides students with analytical tools to understand and identify the mechanisms that explain why persistent differences in economic performance between industries, and even between firms within the same industry, are generally observed. The course focuses on the strategic organization of innovation in explaining firms’ performance differentials.

1. Knowledge and understanding. Students are expected to acquire knowledge of the fundamental concepts of innovation management and to understand how the underlying mechanisms of firms' strategic choices related to innovation policies development.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding. Students will develop their capability to apply concepts and theoretical models proposed during the course to specific examples, often based on in-depth case studies, and to reason critically on the assumptions underlying such concepts and the limits of their applicability.
3. Judgmental capabilities. Students will learn to compare critically alternative explanations of phenomena related to managerial and strategic aspects of innovation, and to develop their own analysis and suggest solutions in case studies.
4. Communication abilities. Students will learn to communicate with groups through in-class groupwork opportunities and to discuss their ideas with a broader audience in the classroom.
5. Learning abilities. The course will enhance the ability of students to make a critical use of the textbook and on theoretical models it presents, to look into integrative readings and empirical examples, and to integrate different forms of learning, in particular integrating text-based learning with case studies discussion.

Students are expected to have achieved the learning objectives of "Advanced marketing". Students should be familiar with concepts and methods related to firms' management and organization.

1. Introduction to the course: competitiveness and innovation
2. The dynamics of technological innovation and diffusion
3. Analysis of a firm’s technology and innovation strategy
4. The creation and capture of value and the formulation of a technological innovation strategy
5. The operational implementation of a technological innovation strategy

Melissa A. Shilling, Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, 5th Edition, 2017
(Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

The exam is composed of two written tests, one for each part of the course. As far as the first part of the course is concerned, the test will be composed of one open question and thirteen multiple choice questions, to be completed in 25 mins. Questions will ascertain the knowledge of concepts and models presented in the course, the capability to apply it to examples, and the critical understanding of such concepts. The open question scores maximum 4 marks. A student scores +2 marks for every correct answer and loses -0.5 marks for every wrong answer. Attending students will get +2 points on the final grade if participating in all learning activities during the course (essays, case study discussion, etc) and if taking the exam during the May/June exam dates of the academic year in which they have attended the course. The final evaluation will result from the average of the grades obtained in each of the two tests (including extra-points). In order to pass the exam, students will have to obtain passing grades in each of the two tests.

The course will be based on classroom teaching, with all material used during classes made available to attending students through the moodle platform.
During classroom hours there will be activities of case studies discussion, used to apply theoretical concepts presented during the week's classes to empirical cases. During the course there will be the opportunity to attend firms presentations, held by managers of firms particularly exposed to innovation dynamics.
Additional readings and materials will be available to attending students on the course moodle page.

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Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning impairments

Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support
services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with
mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

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This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development