28064 - Corporate Strategy

Learning outcomes

The course intends to provide frameworks, methods and tools that can be useful to understand:

- what is corporate strategy and which are its tools and frameworks

- how firms are created and managed in their start up period

- how diversified and international firms are managed

- Why and how acquisitions are implemented

- Why and how alliances are created and managed

- Why and how restructuring and divestment are implemented

- How value is created at the corporate level

Course contents

Business strategy and corporate strategy

New firms' creation and entrepreneurship

Start up creation and growth in geographical clusters

Firms' growth models

Internationalization and "born global"

Management of acquisitions

Management of alliances

Rationalizations and divestments

Corporate-level value creation: Coordination and control systems

Readings/Bibliography

The reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

Lessons, analysis and discussion of case-studies, presentations by guest speakers

 

Assessment methods

Attending students: final group report  (60%), individual class participation (20%), peer evaluation of final cases (20%).

Not attending students: individual exam based on open questions on theory and discussion of short business journal article (100%).The exam will be based on all the readings, both basic and optional.

Criteria for grading:

-Identification of key problems/strategic issues and appropriate use of theoretical frameworks and analytical tools of the course

-Realistic, workable and well supported recommandations

-Communication skills

The assessment grid will be as follows:

· <18 insufficient

· 18-23 sufficient

· 24-27 average/good

· 28-30 very good

· 30 cum laude excellent/outstanding

Office hours

See the website of Cristina Boari