Student guide Facoltą di Economia A.A. 2011/12

Firms, Clusters and Competitiveness
Lesson timetable, Notice board, Additional material
Lecturers
ALBERTI FERNANDO GIUSEPPE
PIZZURNO EMANUELE
Lecturers
ALBERTI FERNANDO
PIZZURNO EMANUELE
The course is open to graduate students from both the Economics and the Engineering Schools of the University as well as to international exchange students. Fluency in English is compulsory to attend the course. Advanced training in economics and management is required. The course will provide a sufficient foundation in industry competition and competitive strategy to allow students without management training to grasp course concepts.The sessions will run for three hours with a short break and will be structured as a case discussion and a concept lecture or guest discussion. Professors Fernando G. Alberti and EmanuelePizzurno will lead the course and teach all the sessions. Other faculty from UNITIS and ERDC will also be involved in providing coaching for the team project.Cases, videos, presentations will be available on a specific course website, provided by Harvard Business School’s MOC program.
 
Attendance. Attendance is strongly recommended at all regular class meetings. The class discussions on cases will provide key elements for the final project and evaluation.
Class participation. Class discussions are an essential component of the learning process.
Your full participation is expected in the discussion of assigned readings and general course themes. You are expected to complete the readings and case texts assigned for each session in advance of that session, and to attend class prepared to discuss the ideas set forth in those readings and cases.
Office hours. See the Internet site for current office hours. You are encouraged to use e-mail and the course website whenever you have specific questions, concerns or suggestions outside of class.
Aim of the course
* This course is based on Prof. M. Porter’s course on “Microeconomics of competitiveness: firms, clusters and economic development”, at Harvard Business School. The course is taught not only at Harvard Business School but by faculty at universities in other cities and countries. Content is shared via the Internet, and there are opportunities for interactions between the students at the different locations. The ultimate aim is for the course to be taught widely at universities throughout the world, and to serve as a stimulus for new teaching materials and instructor learning that will advance competitiveness theory and practice.
 
 
Aim of the course
This course is concerned with the determinants of competitiveness and economic development viewed from a bottom up, microeconomic perspective, i.e. firms and clusters. While sound macroeconomic policies, stable legal and political systems, and the accumulation of factors of production affect the potential for competitiveness, wealth is actually created at the microeconomic level. The strategies of firms, the vitality of clusters, and quality of the business environment in which competition takes place are what ultimately determines a region’s productivity. This course covers both developing and advanced economies, and addresses competitiveness at several levels: nations, states or cities within nations, clusters, and groups of neighboring countries. A major theme of the course is that competitiveness and economic development is affected by policies at all these levels. The course is concerned with government policy but also with the roles of business, universities, and other institutions in competitiveness. In modern international competition, the roles of the constituencies have shifted and expanded, and the traditional separation between them works against successful economic development. Also, the ability to mount and sustain a competitiveness strategy for a nation or region is a daunting challenge. The course will explore not only theory and policy, but also the nature of the organizational structure and institutions for sustained improvements in competitiveness
Syllabus
The course is structured into four parts namely:
 
Part I: Firms, Industries And Cross-Border Competition
1       Competitiveness: Overall Framework
2       Competition Across Locations and Global Strategy for MNCs
Part II: Locations and Clusters
3       The Diamond Model: Advanced Economies
4       The Diamond Model in Developing/Transition Countries
5       Clusters and Cluster Development in Advanced Economies
6       Clusters and Cluster Development in Developing Countries
7       Institutions for Collaboration
Part III: Competitiveness Strategies for Locations
8       Competitiveness Strategy: Advanced Economies
9       Competitiveness Strategy: Developing Economies
10   Competitiveness Strategy: Sub-National and Cross-National Regions
11   Competitiveness Strategy: Cities and local areas
12   Attracting Foreign Investment for Competitiveness
13   The Corporate Role in Economic Development
Part IV: The Process of Economic Development
14   Organizing for Competitiveness
15   The Process of Economic Development and Course Summary
 
The course will be taught using the case method developed at Harvard Business School, together with readings, lectures, videos and guests. Case studies will focus on global firms, clusters and strategies for competitiveness. The case method requires extensive advance preparation for each class, and a significant part of the course grade will be based on participation. The course also involves a major team project involving the competitive assessment of a particular cluster. Professor Michael E. Porter together with other faculty from the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School may be involved both in video-recorded or remote live sessions.
Examinations
Examinations
The final grade will consist of these elements:
-         30% Class Participation. Evaluation will be based on attendance to the course relevance (“saying the right things”) of cases analysis, rigor (“saying things right”) of references to theoretical models, and originality (applying personal critical views or accessing broader sources of data). Peer-to-peer evaluation may influence individual grades.
-         70% Group Final Project. Work groups will be formed during the course. The groups will be required to write a final paper addressing a case of cluster competitiveness not included in the course material. A peer-to-peer evaluation for each member of the group is required. Groups will be assigned to a faculty tutor and will present their project as the final exam of the course. The best group project will be selected for the MOC network student assignment global competition and will be evaluated by a Commission chaired by Prof. Michael Porter. Students will be notified about the calendar for project presentations which will take place immediately after the end of the course.
 
The course is not intended for non-attending students.
Reading list
Compulsory textbook:
- Porter, M.E. (2008), On Competition, Harvard Business School Press
- Cases, readings and additional materialswill be available on the course website.