Firms, Clusters and Competitiveness
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.