International opportunities for students

Details

Instructor: Andrea Piccaluga, a.piccaluga [at] santannapisa.it
Assistant: Alberto Di Minin, a.diminin [at] santannapisa.it

Class hours: 72 hours (teamwork included), 6 ECTS
Syllabus

Contents

The course aims to give a broad and critical understanding of the management issues facing the firms' innovation process, its main types, sources, determinants and patterns. The central objective of this course is to understand the management of innovative firms.

Objectives

Through this course we aim to provide students with actionable knowledge, concrete ideas on innovation, management, strategy and IP management. Moreover, we help them to develop their capability to critically discuss a business strategy and develop their capacity to work in team.

List of topics:

This class will provide multiple opportunities to discuss core strategy and innovation topics, such as: Patterns of innovation, e.g., new technologies competing to replace older generations. Types of disruption, e.g., low-end versus high-end. The innovation ecosystem, e.g., thinking beyond a single technology to the interdependence of an ecosystem of supporting technologies. Systems strategy, e.g., thinking beyond the product to understand the role of technology architecture and systems. The innovation process, e.g. learning under conditions of uncertainty, scaling up for execution.

  • Intro to Moonshots
  • Innovation Management
  • R&D activities and people: how to integrate creativity and structured processes?
  • Innovation scouting
  • Design Thinking
  • High-tech start-up
  • Knowledge Transfer and Academic Entrepreneurship
  • Open Innovation Strategy
  • Big Day on IP Strategy by EPO
  • Platform economy
  • Wrap up and Innovation Master Chef (Electrolux)

Teaching method

Lectures and seminars are the major teaching methods used. Company case studies will also be discussed and analysed in the light of the theoretical aspects taught in class.
The course may involve presentations by managers and/or business owners for the purpose of better illustrating some of the issues described in the course programme and the country focus.

Evaluation method

The final score will be based on a written examination.

Teaching Material

(to be updated by the first lesson)

  • Di Minin A. e A. Piccaluga (2013), Processi di sviluppo e innovazione, in Baglieri D., Dagnino G.B., Faraci R. (2013), Economia e Gestione delle Imprese, Isedi, pp. 97-122. 
  • Chesbrough (2003): The Era of Open Innovation, by Henry Chesbrough, Sloan Management Review, vol. 44, #3. (only pages 35-38). 
  • Rogo F., Grimaldi M., Cricelli L., Di Giovanni M "The patent portfolio value analysis: A new framework to leverage patent information for strategic technology planning" - Elsevier, Technological Forecasting & Social Change 94 (2015) 286-302.
  • Tan, G. (1998). Managing creativity in organizations: a total system approach. Creativity and Innovation Management, 7(1), 23-31. 
  • Pisano G. (2015), "you need an innovation strategy", in Harvard Business Review, June. 

Further readings: 

  • Boudreau, K., Gaule, P., Lakhani, K. R., Riedl, C., & Woolley, A. W. (2014). From crowds to collaborators: Initiating effort & catalyzing interactions among online creative workers. Harvard Business School Scholarly Articles 14-060.
  • Schilling M. (2016). Strategic management of technological innovation. Mc Graw-Hill (5th ed.).
  • Varaldo R. (2014). La nuova partita dell'innovazione, Il Mulino, Bologna.