89935 - Laboratory of Business Simulation

Learning outcomes

The purpose of this laboratory is to provide a hands-on experience, a discussion platform, and a forum of ideas, on the journey of integrating the functional area-specific knowledge acquired during the previous courses. One of the most critical skills a manager needs to develop as he/she moves upward in the organizational hierarchy is the ability to align various organizational departments and functions into a common goal. Specialization gives place to a multidisciplinary approach. The goal of this simulation-based laboratory is to foster and facilitate the integration of knowledge acquired during the Master Program across functional areas, to avoid common silos-driven visions and assure a global business perspective. Specifically, the laboratory aims at: • Increasing the understanding of the implications of a global business operation; • Enhancing the capability to comprehend the interaction among functional areas; • Improving the ability to make company-wide decisions; • Training decision making processes under time pressure; • Further developing team-work, negotiation, and leadership skills

Course contents

This course revolves around digital transformation of business. 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)

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. 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 two main components: lectures, written exam.

Assessment methods

The final mark is based on written exam.

Teaching tools

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

Office hours

See the website of Marcello M. Mariani