14090 - Innovation Economics

Learning outcomes

The student achieves the tools for learning the processes of technological and organizational innovation at play in the enterprise, the industrial sectors and the local systems, with special attention to the dynamics of innovation's diffusion, the technological competition and the public policies in support to innovation in the regional, national, European and international contexts.

Course contents

The course deals with the evaluation of the tecnical progress within the economic theory, the economic impact of the technological innovations in the markets, the strategies and the public policies concerning the appropriation rights of the innovation. After a historycal introduction to the notions of technique, science, and technology before and after the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the programme develops in a sequence of four parts:

1.      1. The technical progress in the economic thought

(classic school, neoclassic school, Schumpeter, Growth Accounting, Arrow, evolutive theory of the technical change)

2.      2. Basics and dynamics of the technological innovation

(science-technology-innovation models, types and sources of innovation, theories of the innovative firms, networks, technological variety and selection, innovation diffusion models);

3.      3. Public policies and technological innovation

(neoclassical and evolutive approach to public policy for innovation, research & education policy, intellectual property rights: patents, open innovation, standards) 

4.     4.  The technological innovation in the markets

(Schumpeterian competition models, technological specialization, fragmentated producing, technology and international trade)

During the course the students are trained to case study analysis addressing the impact of innovation in the domain of the Information and Communication Technologies, and to access statistical data about  markets and policies for innovation in Italy, the European Union, and in  the main countries in America and Asia.

Readings/Bibliography

The textbook is the following:

 Fariselli P., 2013, Economia dell'innovazione, Giappichelli Editore (forthcoming)

 Extra materials, such as lecture slides and notes, papers and reports for the seminars, are circulated online by the teacher through a dedicated distribution list, to be created on https//campus.cib.unibo. The attending students must register with the list at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures, training on the use of statistical data, and seminars of the students on case studies. The seminars are based on materials (academic papers and statistical reports) in English, that are assigned by the teacher to each student.

The teaching includes the training to team & individual work practices for preparation and communication of the case studies in the seminars. In particular, the students are trained to the appropriate use of bibliographic references, quotations, to the search for relevant sources, the check of unclear content. Moreover, the seminars challenge the students to confront the communication dynamics, both as actors and as spectators, taking the chance to evaluate the strength and the weaknesses of the  performances.

The students are provided with templates both for the report and for the presentation they have to comply with. All the individual papers are delivered by the students in advance to the seminars, and are circulated online by the teacher to the distribution list, becoming part of the programme common to the class.

To attend the course is therefore highly recommended, to facilitate the learning and to be trained to case study analysis and to the seminars.

Assessment methods

The students regularly attending the course are evaluated in two steps:

a)      Seminars, during the course.

The students are grouped into thematic groups, the seminars are organised on a thematic base. Each student prepares and delivers an individual  report on the case study and an oral presentation based on slides, according to a schedule agreed in advance. All the students are invited to actively participate by discussing the presentations. The teacher acts as a facilitator and moderator.

The assessment of the students' seminars is based on the following criteria:

-   Correct understanding of the theme and of the case study

-   Identification of the key issues and of the order of priority

-   Accurate synthesis of the relevant content;

-   Balanced and systematic storytelling;

-   Correct and appropriate language (written and oral)

The seminars are evaluated on a 30 basis.

 b)      A written test, at the end of the course, on the entire programme.

The test consists of  open questions, but with limited length, aiming at assessing:

-   the correct learning of the basic concepts and models of the programme's topics

-   accuracy and synthesis of the answers

-   systematic vision of complex issues

The test is evaluated on a 30 basis.

 The final evaluation is the average outcome of the two steps. Those students wishing to increment the final mark have the chance to try it by entering an oral exam in the session immediately after the end of the course.

 The students not attending the course prepare the exam on the entire textbook and must contact the teacher in order to negotiate the additional programme, in substitution of the seminar. They will be evaluated in two steps: 

-   a written test (see above point b), to be admitted to the oral test (minimum 18/30), which will follow straight on in the same session.

-   an oral examination on the standard programme and on the extra programme, to be evaluated for the final mark on a 30 basis.

The evaluation of both the written test and the oral exam is based on the following criteria:

-          full-scale and accurate preparation on the textbook and the lectures' materials

-          synthetic (text – graphic – oral)  answers

-          accurate analytic and formal data processing

-          systematic vision of content within and across the programme's topics

-          correct  and appropriate language (written and oral)

 

Teaching tools

Textbook, lectures' slides and notes, papers on case studies and statistical reports.

Office hours

See the website of Patrizia Fariselli