University of Commerce Luigi Bocconi

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 develops an in-depth knowledge of the venture capital (VC) industry in order to get students be able to carry out an investment analysis in a proper way, taking into consideration all the specific terms and features that affect a VC deal from the investor’s perspective. Moreover, students who attend the course should be able to enter in touch with a real VC deal, to embrace the investor’s angle and to put in practice the know how learnt during the course. The course is split in two parts. The first part is focused on financial features that mark target companies for VC, the VC industry characteristics and the management of VC companies. The second part devotes attention to carry out a comprehensive analysis of an investment opportunity from the VC investor’s point of view. Topics covered include: what is VC and why it exists; what differs entrepreneurial finance from corporate finance; why are VC target firms special, and why and when are they not able to raise capital in the debt market; which are the solutions offered by venture capitalists to the firm’s financial needs, and the relationships between the entrepreneur (the firm) and the outside investor (the VC company); how to read and analyze a business plan from a target company, and business models and revenue forecast; how to invest: organizational framework, strategies, and investment vehicles; investor categories who place funds in the VC industry (financial institutions and pension funds, family offices, corporations, government and local authorities, and informal investors); how to regulate the relationship between general and limited partners ring fenced in investment schemes: disclosure and accountability, incentives schemes, and how to share returns between parties; investment criteria and investment styles (round-financing, milestones, venture debt, portfolio leverage, and exit way); investment valuation: valuation criteria, relevant cash flow, and cost of capital measures; investment valuation: valuation model, and explicit and implicit values; how to put valuation model in practice; and investment decision process: terms of the deal, share price, expected IRR, and investment recommendation. The course recommends students have a background in Financial Mathematics, Accounting, and Corporate Finance as a prerequisite.

This course covers the most important areas of financial economics and investments. The course explores how financial markets work and how they price financial securities and assets. As witnessed in the recent 2008-2009 financial crisis, financial market risks can have spillovers to the whole macroeconomy. Therefore, to understand macroeconomic risks, it is important to have a solid understanding of how financial markets work. The course discusses topics including portfolio selection, equilibrium asset pricing, arbitrage, fixed income securities, and derivatives. Students are required to have completed courses in calculus and statistics as a prerequisite for this course.