University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi

Italy's cultural heritage represents at least 50% of the world's cultural heritage, according to UNESCO. This cultural heritage and the artistic and cultural institutions involved require management and promotion. This course studies the main economic issues in the creative industries (tv, radio, cinema, publishing, theaters, museums, music) and the value chain. Special attention is given to exploring means of service erogation, with a focus on service management both in main and accessory services. The course analyzes the organizational theme of the compatibility of the administration/management aspects of culture with the artistic/intellectual aspects, and the business mechanisms needed to make these work together. Guest speakers from creative hubs and businesses in the field bring real-life cases to class.

This course equips students with the tools and the knowledge required to understand, analyze, and manage the creation, development, and exploitation of innovation within companies. The course consists of three parts. Part one discusses industry dynamics of technological innovation, topics include sources of innovation, types and patterns of innovation, S-curves and diffusion of innovation, and network effects and platform markets. Part two discusses technology commercialization strategy and protection, topics include profiting from innovation; protecting innovation through Patents; and Trademarks, Copyrights, and trade secrets. The third part of the course discusses managing the innovation process, topics include selecting innovation projects, managing the R&D portfolio, organizing for innovation, managing new product development teams, and managing the new product development process.

The course focuses on the role of banks and other financial institutions. The course discusses (1) the main types of financial institutions and the risks they face; (2) banks’ liquidity management and systemic risk; (3) the regulatory framework, with particular emphasis on capital requirements and the resolution framework, and the relationship with accounting; (4) executive compensation; and (5) the challenges for the financial industry due to the low interest rate environment and the Covid-19 crisis. Particular attention is devoted to the European banking industry throughout the course. The course discusses topics including commercial and investment banks: Activities and challenges; financial risks; liquidity and systemic risk; interconnectedness between banks and mutual funds and hedge funds: implications for systemic risk; executive compensation; capital, liquidity, and macro-prudential regulation; the relationship between accounting and prudential regulation; bank resolution framework and state aid; low interest rate environment (LIRE); and post Covid-19: main events and the future of banking.

This course examines imperfectly competitive markets as well as the behavior of firms in these markets. The course looks at the effects of various business decisions and of various forms of policy intervention on the way firms compete and on the outcome of oligopolistic markets. Prominent recent antitrust cases are also discussed. Topics discussed include game theory, the determinants of market power in static oligopolistic models, strategic positioning and advertising, consumer inertia, collusive agreements, horizontal mergers, strategic and non-strategic barriers to entry, exclusionary practices, and anti-trust intervention. Prerequisites: familiarity with basic microeconomics concepts, in particular with the notion of Nash Equilibrium and Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium, with basic oligopolistic models (such as Bertrand and Cournot models of static competition) and with the fundamentals of unconstrained and constrained optimization problems.