12527 - Business Strategies

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student has the knowledge of concepts, and is familiar with the techniques, related to the strategic management. In particular , the student is able: - to use the appropriate conceptual tools, available to managers, to analyze industries and to operate in the markets; - to apply theories and tools useful to understand how to manage companies across different industries, - to understand and support the strategic decision making both for business strategy and corporate strategy.

Course contents

Module 1: Business Strategy (Proff. Paola Giuri - Umberto Lago)

• Strategy and its meanings
• Economic and financial evaluation of strategy. Goals, values and performances.
  
• Business Definition
• Firm strategy and the role of external factors
• Concentration of market shares
  
• Firm strategy and the role of internal factors
• Value proposition and sources of competitive advantage

Module 2: Corporate Strategy (Proff. Paola Giuri - Umberto Lago)

• The industry life cycle
• Corporate strategy
• Vertical integration and the scope of the firm
• Global strategies and multinational companies
  
• Diversification strategy and the management of the multibusiness corporation
• Current trends in strategic management

Readings/Bibliography

Module 1:

Robert M. Grant. Contemporary Strategy Analysis 7th Edition - L'analisi strategica per le decisioni aziendali Il Mulino 2020 (VI Italian ed.). Ch. 1-5,7.

Slides of the lectures and other materials uploaded on Virtuale.

Module 2:
Robert M. Grant. Contemporary Strategy Analysis 7th Edition - L'analisi strategica per le decisioni aziendali Il Mulino 2020 (VI Italian ed.). Ch. 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15.

Slides of the lectures and other materials uploaded on Virtuale.

Teaching methods

• Lectures on the topics included in the syllabus
• Deployment of business cases in order to apply the concepts and tools of the theoretical lectures
• Guest lectures (organized as seminars) on behalf of practitioners
• Exercises to apply tools (e.g. concentration indexes)

Assessment methods

There are no differences for Erasmus students.

For the exam in presence: written exam with multiple choices.

For online exams: oral exam on MS Teams.

It is possible to refuse the grade of the exam more than once.

Te grade will be assigned according to the following scale:

• <18              insufficient
• 18-23           sufficient
• 24-27           good
• 28-30           very good
• 30 with laude excellent

Teaching tools

We will use the following tools:

• Case studies
  
• Lecture slides
• Mentimeter
• electronic spreadsheets (xls)
• Openboard
  

In case of online lectures:

• Microsoft Teams

Office hours

See the website of Paola Giuri

See the website of Umberto Lago