Insegnamento a.a. 2024-2025

20868 - BUSINESS ECONOMICS - MODULE II (ANALYTIC METHODS)

Department of Management and Technology

Course taught in English

Student consultation hours
Class timetable
Exam timetable
Go to class group/s: 27 - 28
EMIT (8 credits - II sem. - OB  |  3 credits SECS-P/08  |  5 credits SECS-P/06)
Course Director:
CLAUDIO PANICO

Classes: 27 (II sem.) - 28 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 27: CLAUDIO PANICO, Class 28: CLAUDIO PANICO


Suggested background knowledge

Good knowledge of basic microeconomics and basic game theory as developed in Bachelor courses is a pre-requisite for this course. Yet, because students have different backgrounds and preparation levels, the course aims to be self-contained. The lectures provide additional technical background to successfully attend this course.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

This course introduces the fundamental tools of microeconomics for studying strategic interactions and the provision of the incentives at multiple levels of analysis: within firms; between partners in alliances; between firms interacting in the market; and between firms, users, and providers in platform-based ecosystems. The course focuses on the development and application of conceptual and formal models rooted in the main theoretical developments in the fields of management, strategy, and organizational economics. Yet the course differs from a typical economics course in several ways. It follows modern strategy frameworks that emphasize the tension between value creation and value capture and exposes students to a range of formal models and concrete problems faced by firms. The course is also largely focused on innovation processes. To innovate, firms must compete but also collaborate with others (engaging in R&D races, forming alliances, embracing an open innovation model, etc.); they can join or create and orchestrate ecosystems; and they must al-so incentivize knowledgeable employees. Students will learn to use analytical frameworks to assess innovation-based strategies within and between firms, in both entrepreneurial and established firms.

CONTENT SUMMARY

The course consists of traditional lectures, exercise sessions, in-class experiments, in-class group assignments, and case study discussions, allowing students to understand the managerial implications of the theory and to develop the necessary analytical skills to assess the challenges of organizing internal and external sources of innovation. The topics of the course are divided into five parts.

 

1) Introduction to game theory: Who does what and when? Who gets what and why?

-Non-cooperative games: Simultaneous, sequential, and repeated games.

-Understanding competition and cooperation.

 

2) Strategic interaction with consumers: How to price a product?

-Price discrimination.

-Pricing a network good.

-Pricing in two-sided platforms.

 

3) Strategic interaction in R&D alliances: How do partners behave? Who should own the innovation?

-Property rights economics;

-The management of innovation;

-Coopetitive tensions in (repeated) alliances.

 

4) Strategic interaction within the firm: How to manage human capital? How to organize the innovation process?

-Contracting, bargaining, and the provision of incentives;

-Contracting under moral hazard and adverse selection;

-Incentives for innovation and creativity;

-Interacting with AI.


Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Assess firms’ incentives to innovate on their own or in cooperation with partners and competitors.
  • Explain the functioning of markets with network goods and two-sided markets.
  • Identify the main issues related to the management of innovation, and possess frameworks to understand common frictions within firms.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Analyze the tensions in R&D alliances.
  • Explain market-based interactions and market outcomes.
  • Apply the appropriate frameworks related to the provision of incentives, the management of innovation, and the management of platform-based ecosystems.

Teaching methods

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

DETAILS

The course consists of traditional lectures, exercise sessions, in-class experiments, in-class group assignments, and case study discussions, allowing students to understand the managerial implications of the theory and to develop the necessary analytical skills to assess the challenges of organizing internal and external sources of innovation.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
   x x
  • Collaborative Works / Assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
 x    

ATTENDING STUDENTS

The assessment of learning will be based on two criteria:  

  1. Four in itinere group assignments, two on the first and two on the second part of the course. The overall grade achieved in the assignments is added to the final grade. 
  2. An individual written exam based on content of the first and the second part of the course.

 

For each group assignment, all students of the team must attend and actively contribute.


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The final grade will be entirely based on an individual written exam at the end of the course.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The suggested textbooks and articles will be communicated to the students at the beginning of the course.

Last change 13/11/2024 15:58