LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims at introducing the student to strategic management, providing the concepts, frameworks and techniques useful in order to make correct firm’s strategic decisions. In particular, the focus of the course are the relationships between firms and their competitive environment, together with their resources and capabilities, in order to obtain a competitive advantage. 
The topics of the course will be useful for the other management courses focused on the tourism sector.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course will provide the concepts, frameworks and techniques useful in order to make correct firm’s strategic decisions. In particular, the focus of the course are the relationships that a firm may develop with its competitive environment, in order to create and sustain a competitive advantage, together with a firm’s resources and capabilities

• Knowledge and understanding. Students will acquire adequate knowledge and an effective understanding of the main theoretical models supporting strategic analysis. They will also acquire the basic elements related to the management of the main corporate functions, with particular reference to those functions that are not subject to in-depth study within the other specific courses of the degree course.
• Ability to apply knowledge and understanding. Students will be able to apply their knowledge to the interpretation and resolution of problems related to strategic business decisions, taking into account the constraints and opportunities arising from the external and internal environment.
• Autonomy of judgement. Students must be able to use the knowledge acquired with autonomous evaluation skills and with skills in different application contexts, both conceptually and operationally.
• Communication skills. Students must acquire the technical language typical of the discipline in order to communicate clearly and unambiguously with specialist and non-specialist interlocutors.
• Learning skills. Students must develop adequate learning skills that allow them to continue to autonomously deepen the main themes of the discipline, both in preparation for other specific teachings and in the working contexts in which they will operate.

PREREQUISITES

Basics of business enterprise management

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures, case studies and seminars.

Lectures are held in Italian, but, for incoming students, it is possible to sustain the exam in English, following the English textbook.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Part I: Introductory aspects of the enterprise

Introduction to Strategic Management
Concept of Enterprise
Enterprises as complex social systems

Part II: Enterprise, environment and competitive advantage

The enterprise and its relationship with the external environment:
the macro-environment: definition and criteria for analysis
the competitive environment: definition and criteria for analysis
The enterprise and its relationships with the internal environment:
resources: definition and classification
from resources to competencies
distinctive skills and competitive advantage
Models, activities and processes for the creation of value
Business and corporate level strategies

Part III: Technological innovation

Concepts and strategies
Types of innovation
First mover concept
Rogers model and S-curve

Part IV: Service management

Basic concepts
The four I's of services
Networked services
The Concept of Servitisation

Part V: Innovative Start-ups

The "open innovation" strategy
Relationship between SUs and large enterprises
Funding of SUs

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Slides and papers from the course.