TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

The course is one of the core educational activities of the curriculum in "International Management". 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 a 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.

There are no prerequisites to take this course. However, students are advised to follow the structure of their study plan in order to ensure the acquisition of the appropriate sequence of topics and disciplines. 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, 6th Edition, 2020
(Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

The exam is structured as follow: 60 multiple choice questions.

- For every question, only 1 answer is the correct one
- Grading: Correct answer: + 0.5 points; Wrong answer: -0.25 points; Blank answer: 0 points (if you do not want to answer to a question, select the option "I do not want to answer")

BONUS POINTS
An additional question is about the bonus points: 1 bonus point = 1 case for which you have handed in the relative short assay.
 Grading: up to 3 points
Students that do not pass the exam in the slots after the course may use the bonus points afterward.

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.

English

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development