Insegnamento a.a. 2024-2025

The general objective of the course is to give students relevant insights into various aspects of setting up public policies, programs and actions to better understand the actual needs of firms and clusters and to support their initiatives. It also discusses which combination of actions a public agency should provide, with whom and how it should interact and collaborate to achieve its objectives and those of the firms and clusters effectively.

The course has been designed both for students interested in corporate strategy and internationalization of firms and clusters and for students interested in public management for competitiveness, innovation and economic development. Its content bridges between theories of traditional corporate strategy and public management concepts to harmonize the language and to stimulate dialogue between public and private stakeholders interested in a common objective: competitiveness. The presentation of real world case studies will further enhance the link between theoretical frames and practical actions.

Understand and analyze how governments innovate and support a country's competitiveness, how firms and clusters implement strategies and actions to gain competitive advantage, and how they contribute to a region's prosperity. 

Define and explain the determinants of public management interventions.

Identify solutions and levers that public agencies have developed to play an active and key role in the competitiveness arena, efficiently coordinating public resources and actions with firms’ and clusters’ initiatives.

Design and to organize multi-stakeholder decision making processes.

Critically discuss (both individually and in team) and propose public management solutions or supporting competitiveness.

Develop teamwork and public speaking skills.

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Collaborative Works / Assignments
• Interaction/Gamification

The course uses lectures and a mix of class discussions, involving also practitioners able to bring to the class concrete public governance examples, case studies, incidents and simulations. The course will take into consideration both theoretical and real-life experiences that might highlight the reasons and conditions for success - even considering situations of failures that could give a clear understanding of what flow of decisions led to the unexpected (and unwanted) result.

Students are requested to read the case study in advance. Discussion questions about each case study in the syllabus will be made available on the course library.  Students will be asked to prepare for the discussion in class.

The final grade will be determined by weighting grades for the following components:

40% Group Project report and presentation

60% Final written exam concerning a case study (different from the ones discussed in class and available on BB). All the questions (2) will be focused on the topics / contents / methods analyzed and discussed in class.

The written exam assesses:

i) the students' understanding of the tools and decision making processes/dynamics public management for enhancing competitiveness;

ii) students’ ability to apply the analytical tools discussed during the course and to propose management solutions in different situations / cases

100% Final written exam concerning a case study (different from the ones available on BB). All the questions (3 or 4) will be focused on the topics / contents / methods analyzed and discussed in class.

The written exam assesses:

i) the students' understanding of the tools and decision making processes/dynamics public management for enhancing competitiveness;

ii) students’ ability to apply the analytical tools discussed during the course and to propose management solutions in different situations / cases.

• Porter, Michael E. On competition. Harvard Business Press, 2008 (Selected chapters)

• Additional readings and case-studies discussed in class and uploaded on the Blackboard platform.

• Porter, Michael E. On competition. Harvard Business Press, 2008.