Course 2020-2021 a.y.

20567 - INNOVATION MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGIES

Department of Management and Technology

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLMG (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - M (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - IM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - AFC (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - CLELI (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - ACME (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - DES-ESS (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - EMIT (6 credits - II sem. - OBS  |  SECS-P/08) - GIO (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - PPA (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08) - FIN (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/08)
Course Director:
ALFONSO GAMBARDELLA

Classes: 31 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: ALFONSO GAMBARDELLA


Suggested background knowledge

To feel comfortable in this course, students should have a basic knowledge of innovation management and data analysis.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

This course focuses on how firms manage innovation and the development of new technologies. Since these decisions are typically decisions under uncertainty, the course studies how to make effective decisions in these contexts. As a result, the course focuses on how and when to make these decisions, under what conditions, what are the tools to make these decisions in the most informed way, and the use of data to make them. The overarching goal is to provide the students with an analytic framework to make decisions like the launch of a new product, a new business idea, an innovation, a start-up. The approach is very practical, and it involves concrete uses of data to make managerial decisions, as well as the realization of concrete projects in class by groups of 3-4 students about real managerial problems. The performance in the projects counts as part of the student’s evaluation for the course.

CONTENT SUMMARY

  • A scientific approach to innovation management.
  • Developing theories about the innovation process and testing them with data.
  • How the approach works in practice.
  • Using data to make innovation decisions: from correlations and tests of hypotheses to regressions and causality (elements of data analysis and econometrics).
  • Building experiments to make innovation decisions.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Learn how to make managerial and entrepreneurial decisions about whether to launch and develop innovations.
  • Learn how to use theory and data to build and test analytical frameworks to make these innovation decisions.
  • Learn how to formulate in practice theories that produce testable implications to assess the outcome of innovation decisions.
  • Learn methods and instruments to test and predict the results of these decisions.
  • Learn in particular how to build experiments for these decisions.
  • Learn how and why this analytical approach leads to better managerial decisions about innovation than more generic managerial approaches.
  • Learn how to make these innovation decisions in very practical contexts.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Make decisions about whether to launch or develop an innovation in very practical contexts by developing frameworks and by using data to test the outcomes of these decisions.

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
  • Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

DETAILS

  • Lectures.
  • Practical activities: formulation of theories about innovation decisions, and test with actua data using Stata or other relevant software.
  • Class project developed by groups of students and discussed at different points in time in class with the instructor and the other students.

Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
     x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
     x
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
     x

ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • Group project: 60%
  • Final exam: 40%

An attending student is a student who participated in no less than 20 classes and in the group project. Class attendance is strongly encouraged.

The goal of the final exam is to assess students' general understanding of material covered in the course. All questions can be answered by knowing the content of the slides only, and good knowledge of the material in the slides are sufficient to pass the exam. However, typically, for top grades (26-31) the instructors expect deeper answers that provide additional evidence or logic from at least a selection of the readings.

Conversely, the goal of the final project is to evaluate students’ critical application of the decision-making framework learned during the class. We evaluate students’ final project based on the following criteria (in order of importance):

  1. Logical consistency in undertaking the testing process, choosing the appropriate tools and evaluating the results.
  2. Clarity in outlining theory-solution fit.
  3. Project feasibility.
  4. Project novelty.

NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Not attending students are evaluated only on the basis of a final written exam. The goal of the final exam is to assess students' general understanding of material covered in the course. All questions can be answered by knowing the content of the slides only, and good knowledge of the material in the slides are sufficient to pass the exam. However, typically, for top grades (26-31) the instructors expect deeper answers that provide additional evidence or logic from at least a selection of the readings.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • Lecture slides and notes, and references to articles indicated at the end of the lecture slides.
  • General textbooks for some of the more technical material (not required for the exam, but useful for consultation).


Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

 


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

  • Lecture slides and notes, and references to articles indicated at the end of the lecture slides.
  • General textbooks for some of the more technical material (not required for the exam, but useful for consultation).


Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

 

Last change 09/12/2020 18:16