BUSINESS ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT OF THE FIRM-2

The course is a core one within the degree programme in Economia aziendale - Business Administration and Management. The goal of the course is to provide a basic understanding of how firms are structured and managed. The course will stress the economic logic underlying the main strategic and organizational decisions faced by firms. The course provides a review of business, management and organization as an area of theoretical development as well as a field of practice. It comprises classical management theories and modern approaches to organisation and business practices.
The second part of the course emphasizes contemporary theories of the firm, and how motivation and information factors affect the structuring of organizations and management policies.
The course includes elements of organisational design and strategic management. The main objective of the course is to present modern concepts of management to the students and to help them in developing skills in the analysis of business organisations both in terms of their internal functioning and interaction with the environment.

1. Knowledge and understanding. Students are expected to acquire knowledge of the fundamental concepts of business economics and management, and to understand how they explain key choices of the firm, in the domains of organization, strategy and management policies (e.g. incentives).
2. Applying knowledge and understanding. Students will develop a capability to apply basic concepts 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 basic organizational and managerial phenomena, and to develop their own analysis and suggest solutions in case studies.
4. Communication abilities. Students will learn to communicate with groups through groupwork opportunities, and to present their work to a broader audience in the classroom.
5. Learning abilities. The course will enhance the ability of students to make a critical use of textbooks, to look into integrative readings, and to integrate different forms of learning, in particular integrating text-based learning with case studies discussion.

Mandatory: Principles of Management and International Accounting (ET0078)

1. Complementarities and network externalities (ch.2)
2. Market failures (ch. 3)
− negative externalities,
− information asymmetries,
− holdup and incomplete contracts.
3. The Principal-Agent relationship (ch. 4)
− multi-tasking,
− empirical aspects,
− careers and tournaments,
− intrinsic motivations.
4. Growth of the firm (ch. 5)
− diversification,
− mergers, acquisition, an dinformational asymmetries,
− relational contracts and vertical integration.
5. Innovation (ch. 6)
− growth by innovation,
− exploration and exploitation,
− motivational and organizational aspects of innovation.

John Roberts, The Modern Firm. Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780198293750
Integrative readings will be suggested during the course.

Written exam, no books or notes allowed
The exam will be written and will integrate the two parts of the course, with 15 multiple choice questions on part I (tot. 15 points, duration:30 mins) and 5 MCQs ans open questions on part II (tot. 15 points, duration:45 mins). Questions will ascertain the knowledge of the basic concepts presented in the course, the capability to apply it to examples, and the critical understanding of such concepts.
The final grade will also reflect the performance of students on learning activities during the course (case study discussions, and groupwork), up to 3 points.

written

Regarding the grading scale (criteria for assigning grades):
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be assigned in the presence of:
Sufficient knowledge and understanding of the course program;
Limited ability to apply knowledge and formulate independent judgments;
Sufficient ability to communicate using the appropriate technical language of the subject.

B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be assigned in the presence of:
Fair knowledge and understanding of the course program;
Fair ability to apply knowledge and formulate independent judgments;
Fair ability to communicate using the appropriate technical language of the subject.

C. Scores in the 27-30 range will be assigned in the presence of:
Good to excellent knowledge and understanding of the course program;
Good to excellent ability to apply knowledge and formulate independent judgments;
Good to excellent ability to communicate using the appropriate technical language of the subject.
D. Honors will be awarded in the presence of outstanding knowledge and applied understanding of the program, excellent judgment skills, and exceptional communication abilities.

The course will be based on classroom teaching, with all material used during classes made available to students through the moodle platform.
During classroom hours there will be activities of case studies discussion, and small classroom experiments.
Students will be involved in groupwork activities outside classroom time to prepare case studies presentations and discussions.
Additional readings and multimedia materials will be available on the course moodle page.

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