B6491 - DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS IN SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Learning outcomes

The aim of this course is to provide an overview of the digital economy, with a focus on digital technologies that are shaping the digital transformation of service industries and business models. It illustrates how digital technologies have led to the Industry 4.0 phenomenon in the service industries. Digital entrepreneurship and digital marketing for enterprises in a digital economy will be illustrated. You will be able to: • Illustrate the characteristics of the digital economy; • Identify and describe digital technologies underpinning the Industry 4.0 and digital transformation in service industries; • Recognize the trends of servitization in manufacturing; • Describe how firms use digital technologies to develop digital business models; • Gain knowledge about entrepreneurial tools for digital entrepreneurship; • Gain knowledge about marketing tools for digital marketing.

Course contents

This course revolves around digital transformation of business and especially service industries. The course illustrates the major characteristics of the digital economy and the Industry 4.0 revolution, with a focus on digital technologies that are shaping the digital transformation of business. It will adopt a digital entrepreneurship and digital marketing perspective. Topics that will be discussed include the following ones:

1) Understanding the Digital Economy, digital enterprise, and digital transformation

2) The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) and its impact on services

3) The Digital Economy and digital entrepreneurship

4) Opportunity Recognition, Development and Evaluation and Digital workspaces in the context of the Digital Economy

5) Value Proposition and Digital Business Models

6) Competitive dynamics and pitching digital business ideas

7) Entrepreneurial techniques for rapid business model iteration

8) Management by data, Big Data and data analytics

9) Digital marketing

Readings/Bibliography

• Blank, S. (2013). Why the lean start-up changes everything. Harvard Business Review, 91(5), 63-72.
• George, G., Osinga, E.C., Lavie, D., Scott, B.A. (2016). Big data and data science methods for management research, Academy of Management Journal, 59 (5), 1493–1507.
• Gurbaxani, V. and Dunkle, D. (2019). Gearing Up For Successful Digital Transformation, MIS Quarterly Executive: 18(3), Article 6.
• Mack, E.A., Marie-Pierre, L., Redican, K.(2017) “Entrepreneurs' use of internet and social media applications”, Telecommunications Policy, 41: 120–139.
• Mariani, M. M., & Wamba, S. F. (2020). Exploring how consumer goods companies innovate in the digital age: The role of big data analytics companies. Journal of Business Research, 121, 338-352.
• Mariani, M., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2024). Generative artificial intelligence in innovation management: A preview of future research developments. Journal of Business Research, 175, 114542.
• Mariani, M. M., Borghi, M., & Okumus, F. (2020). Unravelling the effects of cultural differences in the online appraisal of hospitality and tourism services. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, 102606.
• Mariani, M., & Borghi, M. (2019). Industry 4.0: A bibliometric review of its managerial intellectual structure and potential evolution in the service industries. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 149, 119752.
• Mariani, M., Di Fatta, G., & Di Felice, M. (2018). Understanding customer satisfaction with services by leveraging big data: the role of services attributes and consumers’ cultural background. IEEE Access, 7, 8195-8208.
  
• Nambisan, S. (2017) “Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a Digital Technology perspective of Entrepreneurship”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(6): 1029-1055.
• Osterwalder A and Pigneur, Y. (2010) Business Model Generation. Wiley. ISBN: 13: 978-0-470-87641-1.
• Power, B. (2014). How GE applies lean startup practices. Harvard Business Review. Available at https:// hbr.org/2014/04/how-ge-applies-lean-startup-practices, accessed 7 March 2017.
• Ries, E. (2011). The lean startup: How today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. New York: Crown Publishing.
• Shane, S. & Venkataraman, S. (2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), pp. 217-226.
• Skilton, M. (2015) Building the Digital Enterprise, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 13: 978-1-137-47770-5.
• Wasserman, N. (2008). The founder’s dilemma. Harvard Business Review, 86(2), 102-109.

Teaching methods

The course has three main components: lectures, teamwork, online written exam.

 

This course is part of the teaching experimentation of the University of Bologna. L'insegnamento partecipa al progetto di sperimentazione didattica dell'Ateneo.

Assessment methods

The final mark is based on an online written exam and teamwork.

The range of grades for the written exam (and teamwork) is as follows:

• <18 not sufficient;
• 18-23 sufficient;
• 24-27 good;
• 28-30 very good;
• 30 Lode excellent.

Teaching tools

All materials can be found on https://virtuale.unibo.it/

Office hours

See the website of Marcello M. Mariani