DALMINE
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course contributes to learning objectives of the master program in Management Engineering, particularly for what concerns the understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena and the skills to prompt an entrepreneurial approach to plan and manage complex systems. The Management Engineer is characterized by strong analytical and decision-making skills coupled by an open and multidisciplinary mindset.
Course Prerequisites
Some knowledge about the issues of Economics of Technological Change (22023) could facilitate the learning of the main topics.
Deep synergies are pursued with the course of Strategia e Sistemi di Pianificazione (37056).
Teaching Methods
- Theory refers to frontal lessons, and students are encouraged to discuss and formulate proposals for further studies or debates. Seminars with entrepreneurs and managers are aimed at integrating the theoretical topics with examples drawn from the real experience of individual entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies.
- Entrepreneurial laboratories involve skills and tools to develop and test a business idea/concept. Students will practice the tools used in the creation of new ventures and will be directed to the validation of the new business idea/concept in the context of a real/local SME. This will include the identification and analysis of customer demand, the validation of the solution and the definition of the market and growth potential.
Through the e-learning platform the student has available the material presented in class, as well as supplementary material related to the evolution of companies in the global context (articles from scientific journals and from periodicals of the economic-financial area, etc.). Social networking tools encourage discussions and the exchange of ideas on the topics covered in class.
Assessment Methods
Discussion (20% of the final grade): Individual discussion and elaboration of a conceptual essay to be shared with the classmates and the faculty (individual work).
Project work (80% of the final grade): Written project work + oral (presentation). The project work consists in an originally designed business model for an innovative concept/idea for a real/local SME (team work). To assess the understanding of theory and tools, questions related to all lectures contents might be asked during the project work presentation, too.
Additional points (up to 3) can be given to students based on their proactive participation (individually) during the semester (assignment, podcasts, etc.).
For non-attending students, the exam consists of a written exam, which mirrors – in terms of contents, approaches and level of difficulty – the course content and the exam that is provided to attending students. The exam is based on the reference texts provided and on the resources made available through the e-learning platform (materials, cases and discussions).
Contents
Radical and rapid changes in new technologies, such as Information Technologies, biotechnologies, new materials, renewable energies, and the opportunities coming from a globalized and interconnected economy encourage the establishment of startups. Entrepreneurship has become paramount for the growth of economic systems. Small firms are becoming more and more digitized, innovative and globally connected; even large and established companies recognize entrepreneurship as a strategic behavior and cooperate with startups, renew strategies and innovate their products. The entrepreneur is an agent of change and an innovator who seizes opportunities and needs. The contents of the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Marketing course (37171) is consistent with this scenario. In detail the covered topics are: - Entrepreneurship and career trajectories. - Entrepreneurship, small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) and economic development. - Entrepreneurship actors, processes, ecosystems. - Creativity and idea generation. -Entrepreneurship within established companies (intrapreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship). -Enterprises in social contexts: university-entrepreneurship, family-entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial teams. -Business model design and business model innovation. - Tools to launch entrepreneurship and business model innovation projects in entrepreneurial small and medium-sized firms (SMEs): design thinking, lean startup and experimentation (options and experiments - validation), pitching and raising funds.