8220 - THE ECONOMICS AND ORGANIZATION OF INTER-FIRM NETWORKS
MM-LS - AFC-LS - CLAPI-LS - CLEFIN-LS - CLELI-LS - DES-LS - CLG-LS - M-LS - IM-LS - ACME-LS - EMIT-LS
Department of Management and Technology
Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
MM-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - AFC-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - CLAPI-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - CLEFIN-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - CLELI-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - DES-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - CLG-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - M-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - IM-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - ACME-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI) - EMIT-LS (6 credits - II sem. - AI)
Course Director:
STEFANO BRESCHI
STEFANO BRESCHI
Course Objectives
The fundamental objective of this course is to provide students with a broad set of analytical and empirical tools useful for analyzing social networks and their dynamics. These tools are applied and discussed with reference to a variety of economic (e.g. bio-pharmaceuticals) and organizational (e.g. scientific research networks) contexts. Interest in the role of social and organizational networks has dramatically increased over the last few years. Beside the growing importance of sectors in which technologies operate as part of a network (such as telephone, faxes and e-mail), there are two basic tendencies that explain the increasing attention devoted to networks. On the one hand, various forms of stable co-operation among firms (joint ventures, strategic alliances etc.) have replaced the vertically integrated firm as the most efficient way of organizing production activities. On the other hand, the fact that nowadays no single organization, even the largest one, is able to master all the knowledge and technologies needed to innovate. Therefore, participation in networks of generation and diffusion of knowledge has become fundamental to remaining competitive. This course provides a broad coverage of the recent literature on social and organizational networks and it provides an introduction to the basic quantitative and qualitative methodologies for social network analysis.
Course Content Summary
- Introduction to social network analysis
- Small-worlds and scale-free networks
- Strategic alliances and cooperation networks
- Technological complexity, modularity and network organizations.
- Network structures and networks roles (brokers, gatekeepers, etc.)
- Scientific research networks
- Citation networks and technological trajectories
- Communities of practice and epistemic communities
- Dynamic multiple networks
Detailed Description of Assessment Methods
The exam will consist in a project paper by individual students.
Textbooks
The course is based on a collection of scientific papers. The list of readings is distributed at the beginning of the course.
Last change 26/03/2009 15:51