GENERAL MANAGEMENT A.Y

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GENERAL MANAGEMENT A.Y. 2017-18 TEACHING MEMBERS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COURSE: Gianpaolo Abatecola Office: PhD.

1 GENERAL MANAGEMENT A.Y TEACHING MEMBERS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COURSE: Gianpaolo Abatecola Office: PhD., Associate Professor of Management University of Rome Tor Vergata, School of Economics Department of Management and Law Research Building, Room No. 55 (First Floor) Via Columbia 2, 00133, Rome, Italy Office Hours: Friday (12pm-1pm) Office Phone: +39(0) Mail: Corrado Cerruti Office: PhD., Full Professor of Management University of Rome Tor Vergata School of Economics Department of Management and Law Research Building, Room No. 63 (First Floor) Via Columbia 2, 00133, Rome, Italy Office Hours: to be weekly checked on the school s web site Office Phone: +39(0) Mail: corrado.cerruti@uniroma2.it 1

2 OVERVIEW The General Management course aims at providing students with the key competences for understanding the main competitive challenges that corporations face to date. The course is composed of two intertwined modules. Entitled Enterprise Evolution, Module I, on the hand, mainly explores the competitive relationship between enterprises and their external environment. Entitled Digital Transformation Management, Module II, on the other hand, mostly focuses on business process management, looking at its characteristics and at the impact of digital transformation. TEACHING EVALUATIONS As far as every academic year is concerned, the students satisfaction about the courses taught at the University of Rome Tor Vergata is officially collected through on-line anonymous questionnaires. On this premise, the data below summarize the yearly evaluation achieved by the course of General Management (overall, i.e. average between Module I and Module II). General Management(*) a.y. a.y. a.y. a.y. 2013/ / / /17 Question \ No. Respondents Are the Exam Rules Clearly Defined? Is the Class Timetable Respected? Are the Office Hours Respected? Are the Lectures Interesting and Clear? Is the Working Load Appropriate? Are the Class Materials Appropriate? Overall, Am I interested to this Class? Overall, Am I Satisfied with this Class? Overall 3.5/4 3.5/4 3.6/4 3.6/4 * The score can range from 1 (minimum) to 4 (maximum). EXAM RULES 1. The exam is only written (6 open ended question test, 3 questions per module). It is evaluated in X out of 30. In each module, students will have the possibility to improve their evaluation (with up to 2 additional extra-points) through performing case presentations or software simulations. On this side, additional information will be provided during the lectures. 2. Only students booked through the Delphi system can perform the written exam. 3. If a student s written test is evaluated as not sufficient, the student is not allowed to repeat the test in the same exam session. When receiving the test in any given call, the student has the initial 10 minutes to retire; in this case the test is intended as not performed, thus the student can try the test again in the same session. 4. Students can decide to reject a grade when not satisfied. Being present in any given call automatically means rejecting a grade taken previously. 5. Students can receive insights about their written evaluation during the first office hours immediately available after the test s date. 6. Excellent answers are those which represent an appropriate mix between theory and practice (i.e. business examples). Theoretical connections among the different topics are also very welcome. 2

3 MODULE I - ENTERPRISE EVOLUTION 1. INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES Knowledge and understanding How does competition work? How do firms survive, adapt and evolve? And how do the mechanisms of co-evolution between firms, markets and country systems work? It is a matter of fact that Charles Darwin s The Origin of Species (1859) has been representing a catalyst publication also for the development of the management literature. Although the contribution of Darwinism to understanding how firms and country-systems evolve remains controversial to date, a number of heterogeneous research perspectives have been developed within the enterprise evolution research and teaching fields. On this basis, this module aims at explaining how the enterprises governance and management evolve under uncertainty in dynamic and complex environments. Applying Knowledge and understanding At the end of the module, the students: 1. will have been provided with ideas on how enterprise adaptation works and how enterprises and their competitive environments mutually co-evolve. 2. will have been provided with the fundamentals of how the enterprises strategy can be implemented through their life cycle. 2. SYLLABUS The key topics taught in the module are the following: PART I EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL DARWINISM Enteprise Evolution: Charles Darwin s Legacy? From Evolution to Co-Evolution The Music Industry Case Study PART II ENTEPRISES AND NATURAL SELECTION The First Years of Life The Liability of Newness The Facebook Case Study PART III ENTEPRISES AND COMPETITIVE SELECTION On Competition Models of Enterprise Evolution The ENI Group Case Study PART IV CRISIS AND RESTRUCTURING OF ENTEPRISES Corporate Crises as Ineffective Adaptations Boards of Directors and Turnaround Management The Fiat Group Automobiles Case Study PART V STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING Bounded Rationality and Self-Reinforcing The Personality Factor The Higher Education Industry Case Study 3

4 3. TEACHING METHODS Research led, the teaching approach is also featured by a strong practitioner input through live case study discussions, videos, case presentations by students, and combined talks with business experts. The teaching approach is also cross-disciplinary for more than one aspect, with elements drawn from biology and psychology constituting a distinctive feature (e.g. comparisons with biological adaptation, evolution and life cycle; narcissism and other personality traits; BIG 5 and MBTI personality measurement tools; heuristics). 4. REFERENCES Abatecola G. (2009), Bridging Adaptation Perspectives to Explore Corporate Crisis Determinants. Evidence from Fiat, International Journal of Business & Economics, 8(1): Abatecola G. (2012a), Organizational Adaptation. An Update, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 20(3): Abatecola G. (2012b), Interpreting Corporate Crises. Towards a Co-Evolutionary Approach, Futures, 44(10): Abatecola G. (2014a), Research in Organizational Evolution. What Comes Next?, European Management Journal, 32(3): Abatecola G. (2014b), Untangling Self-Reinforcing Processes in Managerial Decision Making. Co- Evolving Heuristics?, Management Decision, 52(2): Abatecola G., Cafferata R., Poggesi S. (2009), Strategy, Structure and Market Liberalization: Evidence from ENI ( ), DSI McGraw Hill Essays Series, 7. Abatecola G., Cafferata R., Poggesi S. (2012), Arthur Stinchcombe s Liability of Newness. Contribution and Impact of the Construct, Journal of Management History, 18(4): Abatecola G., Farina V., Gordini N. (2014), Board Effectiveness in Corporate Crises. Lessons from the Evolving Empirical Research, Corporate Governance, 14(4): Abatecola G., Mandarelli G., Poggesi S. (2013), The Personality Factor. How Top Management Teams Make Decisions. A Literature Review, Journal of Management and Governance, 17(4): Adriansee J. (2011), Back to the Future: The General Motors Restructuring Plan, The Hague, The Netherlands. Cafferata R. (2016), Darwinist Connections between the Systemness of Social Organizations and their Evolution, Journal of Management and Governance, 20(1): Cafferata R., Abatecola G. (2017), Enterprise Evolution. Teaching Notes, Texmat, Rome. Cafferata R., Abatecola G., Poggesi S. (2009), Revisiting Stinchcombe s Liability of Newness: A Systematic Literature Review, International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, 3(4): Cristofaro M. (2017a), Countervailing the Liability of Newness by Bringing in Active Investors: The Case of Facebook, Strategic Direction, 33(8): 1-3. Cristofaro M. (2017b), Reducing Biases of Decision-Making Processes in Complex Organizations, Management Research Review, 40(3): Uli V. (2015), Competitive Dynamics in the Music Industry, paper presented at the EURAM Annual Conference, Paris. 4

5 ANALYTICAL SYLLABUS Date Topic Main References Weekly Keyword Sep, 21 st Sep, 22 th Competition: The IKEA Live Case Enteprise Evolution: Darwin s Legacy Enteprise Adaptation and Co-Evolution Cafferata (2016) Abatecola (2012a); (2014a) Co-Evolution Sep, 28 th The First Years of Life: Systemness and Evolution Cafferata (2016) The Liability of Newness Cafferata et al. (2009) Abatecola et al. (2012) Natural Selection Sep, 29 th The Facebook Case Study Cristofaro (2017a) Oct, 5 th The General Motors Case Study Adriansee (2013) Oct, 6 th The Music Industry Case Study Uli (2015) On Competition and Firm s Life Cycle Competitive Selection Oct, 12 th Models of Enterprise Evolution (Part I) Oct, 13 th Models of Enterprise Evolution (Part II) Enterprise Life Cycle Oct, 19 th Oct, 20 th Oct, 26 th Oct, 27 nd The Enron Movie Boards and Turnaround Abatecola et al. (2014) The Fiat Group Automobiles Case Study Abatecola (2009) Corporate Crises as Ineffective Adaptations Abatecola (2012b) The Hidden Traps in Decision Making Abatecola (2014b) Self-Reinforcing Processes The Personality Factor and Behavioral Strategy Abatecola et al. (2013) The Higher Education Industry Case Study Cristofaro (2017b) Corporate Crises and Turnaround Strategic Decision Making 5

School of Business and Economics Department of Management Accounting and Logistics

Jnr: 2015/3729 3.1.2 Course syllabus School of Business and Economics Department of Management Accounting and Logistics 2FE078 Supply Chain Management, 30 högskolepoäng Supply Chain Management, 30 credits