Learning objectives
a. Knowledge and
understanding: course is aimed at supplying students with a basic knowledge on main Industrial Organisation issues, about structure of industries, conduct of companies and economic performance; moreover course is also aimed at making students to learn professional techniques concerning industry analysis through teamwork study of specific companies’groups.
b. Applying knowledge
and understanding: students can apply theorethical issues to specific industries, of wich they will learn to examine Structure, Conduct and Results as they are in industrial reality: the packaging machinery industry, a sector featured by high international competitiveness and high internationalization of firms;
c. Making judgements: the need to apply knowledge to case studies and the need to face analytical as well as descriptive issues helps students to develop an autonomous and critical capabilities about industry analysis;
d. communication skills: students will also learn to elaborate and write, in small groups, reports on main firms and sector features, as well as on their evolution. The reports are based on specific feature of firms, of competitive environment in which firms are living and its evolution. Individual communication and discussion of results of such reports with colleagues and with teacher are a founding part of the course.
e. Learning skills: the mix between theory and practical application of course's issues helps learning process, by linking theory and practice together.
Prerequisites
Course unit content
The course is mainly twofold: in first part, by means of frontal teaching, as in standard Industrial Organisation courses, main theorethical instruments needed for industries’ analysis are supplied. Main theorethical framework is here Structure-Conduct-Results, augmented with many industries’ as well as firms’ case studies.Second part is more empirical: after introducing main data sources and taxonomies on firms and industries, companies of an important and dynamic capital goods industry (i.e. machinery) and its evolution are examined: the packaging machinery industry. Here Structure-Conduct-Results theory are applied through direct analysis of data on industry’s firms (with both micro and macro data on an international basis). Not only technological, productive as well as competitive issues will be analysed that result in performance scores, but also financial resilience and marketing strategies, included internationalization degree.This second part will be conducted (in an interactive manner with teacher) by students on publicly available data, as well as on original data supplied by UCIMA (Union of Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers, CONFINDUSTRIA). This team work will request students to face issues of industry analysis by means of simple statistical data analysis techniques (on excel and SPSS).
Full programme
Bibliography
Dennis W. Carlton e Jeffrey M. Perloff, Organizzazione Industriale, 3a Ed., McGraw-Hill
Other data and materials (from UCIMA Research Center MECS) as well as SPSS statistical package needed for teamwork will be supplied by teacher on Elly.
Teaching methods
Frontal teaching + availability of on line lessons recorded in videoconference call (Teams+Stream)
Laboratory Teamwork on firm and industry level data + home teamwork on line in videoconference call (Teams+Stream)
Reports production and presentation by students + availability of the presentations on line in videoconference call (teams+Stream). (Reports will be included in compulsory materials for final written exam)
Assessment methods and criteria
Written exam on book topics (MAX. SCORE: 17/30 CUM LAUDE) as well as on results from Reports produced by teamwork and presented orally by students; MAX. SCORE: 13/30 CUM LAUDE).
When both report oral presentation and written exam are completed, the resulting evaluation, sum of the two parts, will be published on ESSE3 portal by Cineca.
"CUM LAUDE" SCORE IS GIVEN BY PROFESSOR UPON EVIDENCE OF COMPLETE, DETAILED, AND CRITICAL LEARNING OF ALL STUDY MATERIALS.
AT ORAL EXAMS ONLY SIMPLE SCIENTIFIC CALCULATORS ARE ALLOWED. EACH OTHER PHISICAL OR DIGITAL INSTRUMENT AIMED AT STORING OR TRANSMITTING ANY DATA, INCLUDED TELEPHONES OR WATCHES, IS PROHIBITED.
Other information
