Insegnamento a.a. 2019-2020

The course covers analytical and conceptual models that help in the development of strategic thinking. The main goal of the course is, to improve students’ analytical skills and to foster the development of strategic thinking. The topics of logistics and production are also extensively studied. The topics of this course include:

• What is strategy?
• Structure of creative industries.
• Industry Analysis.
• Competitive advantage.
• The internal sources of competitive advantage.
• Organizational structure as a source of competitive advantage
• Industry evolution and strategic change.
• Operations and processes.
• Operations strategy & design.
• Supply Chain Management.

• Identify, understand, and describe the institutional and competitive environment within diverse creative industries.
• Explain processes for transforming competitive advantages into sustainable competitive advantages.
• Describe and use foundational concepts in strategy such as industry dynamics, competitive advantage, resources and capabilities, organizaitonal structure and how they relate to creative industries. 
• Describe and use foundational concepts in operations such as planning and control, supply chain management and corporate social responsibility.

• Evaluate strategic situations faced by different kinds of organizations.
• Apply the frameworks from the class to novel market contexts and organizations.
• Create organizational strategies for new and exisiting firms. 
• Develop critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills.
• Work effectively within a team.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Individual assignments
• Group assignments

• Cases are discussed in class with the purpose of bringing to life the concepts and frameworks learned during the course.
• Individual assignments are used to develop critical thinking and analytical skills through the use of course concepts.
• Group assignments develop critical communication skills required to address strategic decision-making in group and organizational contexts.

The assessment methods are designed for students to achieve three primary learning goals.

• First, through real-world case analyses (40% of the final grade), students learn to analyze and understand complex environmental and organizational phenomena related to business strategy. These case studies give the students the ability to examine and evaluate how business strategies affect, and are affected by, an organization’s environment.
• Second, through a team-based business plan project (50% of the final grade), students actively use the concepts and frameworks learned in class to create the business strategy for a new entrepreneurial venture. Students gain the ability to organize and manage a project within a team, the ability to develop an effective business plan strategy (e.g., analysis of the market, understanding of requisite resources and capabilities, necessary organizational structure, etc.), the ability to think about the main problems that might emerge by launching such a plan, and the ability to structure and deliver a winning presentation.
• Finally, through in-class participation (10% of the final grade) students gain an ability to overcome public-speaking nerves, to generate creative and analytical thoughts on the spot, and to engage in hearty debate on contentious business strategy decisions.

​​​​​​Non-attending students will take a final exam composed of approximately 30 multiple-choice, true-false, and open-ended questions. Students should be prepared to answer any combination of these questions, this means that the exam could include all open-ended questions, all multiple-choice questions, all true-false questions, or varying combinations of question types. There is no change in the final exam structure due to the coronavirus situation. The only change is that the exam will now take place online. You will have 60-minutes to complete the exam and will receive further instructions from the University’s information technology team closer to the exam date.

R.GRANT, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, Wiley, 2016, 9th Edition.

N. SLACK, A. BRANDON-JONES, R. JOHNSTON, Operations Management. Prentice Hall, 8th edition.