INDUSTRIAL DYNAMICS AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

The course aims to provide students with knowledge about the evolution of market and industrial structures and how change relates to growth. We will study how firms’ strategies and performances are dependent on the evolution of territorial and industrial contexts and of the institutional aspects and at the same time how those strategies may support new industrial and territorial competition. We will analyze who are the relevant players within the global economy, who are the winners and who are the losers. Particular attention will be given to recent global challenges in specific industries and the competition coming from new emerging economies.
The course will deal with national and international experiences of organization of production and innovation, and industrial differences in the modes of globalizing those activities. Empirical cases will be discussed in a comparative perspective along time and space. Different types of policies supporting firms’ internationalization and development strategies will be introduced.

1. Knowledge and understanding
- framing theoretically and empirically the evolution of industrial structures along time and space and the possible growth factors
- framing firms’ strategies and competition within specific industrial and territorial contexts in evolution
- learning about the innovation system supporting agglomeration economies and specific industrial evolutions
- understanding how global challenges are determining new competition strategies at the level of the firm and the level of the industry
- understanding the sectorial differences in the modes of globalizing innovation and production

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
- understanding the main characteristics and evolution of markets and industries
- identifying the best strategies at the level of industry and at the level of the firm to face ongoing processes of globalization
- knowing how to distinguish who are the winners and who are the losers within the global market competition
- being able to identify the effect of policies on firms’ strategies and for supporting development paths
- learning how to adapt theories to real situation

3. Ability to judge
- being able to critically assess the recent industrial and market dynamics as well as the challenges of globalization processes

4. Communication skills
- students will learn how to present and discuss specific cases and own data elaborations

Students are encouraged to take the Microeconomics exams before this course

Contents I module
- Evolution of theories within industrial dynamics and the empirical approach
- Evolution of markets and industries: concentration trends, life cycles and recent industrial dynamics
- Change and growth
- Changes in the labor market
- Industrial localization and new dynamics
- Responses to unexpected events and crises
- National and regional innovation systems in a comparative perspective
- Policies for new development paths

Modulo I

Key readings:
- Asheim, B.T. 2007. Differentiated knowledge bases and varieties of regional innovation systems, Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 20:3, 223-241. doi: 10.1080/13511610701722846.
- Bellandi M. and Storai D. 2022. Structural change and agency in territorial development: the case of mature industrial districts, Regional Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2107190 .
- Chaminade, C., Lundvall B. and Haneef S. 2018. Advanced introduction to National Innovation systems. Edward Elgar. (Only Chapter 1)
- Clydesdale, G. 2022. Industrial Development. How States Build Capabilities and Deliver Economic Prosperity. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003207719 . (Only chapter 3 and chapter 5)
- Lipczynski, J., Wilson, J.O.S, Goddard, J., 2017. Industrial Organization: Competition, Strategy and Policy, 5th edition. Pearson (Only pp. 267-279 and pp.287-297).
- Malerba, F. and Pisano, G.P. 2019. Innovation, competition and sectoral evolution: an introduction to the special section on Industrial Dynamics, Industrial and Corporate Change, Volume 28, Issue 3, June 2019, Pages 503–510, https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtz017 .

More detailed information regarding the readings will be provided during the first lecture. Some of the readings will be accessible on the MOODLE platform of the course

Written exam: multiple-choice questions and open questions

Evaluation criteria for students participating in group works: Written exam (50 percent of the final grade) and group works (50 percent of the final grade)
Evaluation criteria for all the other students: Written exam (100 percent of the final grade)

The course is held on campus. The course includes lectures and workshops with group presentation and discussion

English

In case of health emergency situation the programme and the exam may change.
Please register also on MOODLE

written

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