Bachelor Program in Business and Management

In modern economies, businesses are organised in a variety of forms, and many very different “models” co-exist. Firms vary in size (micro, small, medium, big), managerial structures (one single owner-manager; various layers of professional managers), and forms of governance (sole-ownership; partnership; incorporated businesses). Some of them focus on a core business and operate in a single nation (or indeed a region or a city), while others are multiproduct and multinational. Some use (or even develop) state-of-the-art technologies, while other rely on cheap labour and very basic techniques.

The aim of the course is to analyse the causes and consequences of the existence of such a variety of models of business and forms of organisation.

To do so, the course investigates the development and functioning of various models of business over time and space, starting with the forms of organisation which dominated the Western world before the beginning of the process of industrialisation, to finish with contemporary phenomena of downsizing and outsourcing. During the course students became familiar with the causes behind the emergence of production in factories, why certain firms grew and other did not, whether models alternative to mass production existed and still do.

The course focuses on the impact of factors such as technology, market structure and financial intermediation, but also regulation and informal cultural norms.

Although the course does not assume students to have any background of economics, it uses ideas derived from various streams of social sciences.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

• Understand the features of different models of business, how they evolve, and how they function.
• Provide a critical view of various theories of the firm.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

• Apply such theories to the study of the evolution of business structure to show their relative ability to explain the reality of firms’ organization and behavior.

INDEPENDENT JUDGEMENT

• Critical use of history to understand current issues

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

• Presenting material during the class

LEARNING SKILLS

• Ability to apply theories to reality

• Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Models of business during the industrial revolution
  • Case study: Josiah Wedgwood
  • The rise and development of big businesses in the US
  • Case study: Walt Disney
  • Germany: the advantages of cooperation
  • Case study: Volkswagen
  • UK: rise, decline, rise again
  • Business structure and economic performance in Italy
  • An alternative model of business: industrial districts
  • Conglomerate: rise and fall
  • Beyond the conglomerate: new models of business
  • Japan: the rising sun
  • Soviet Russia and Russia without Soviets
  • Theory of the Firm I
  • Theory of the Firm II
  • Discussion and revision class

• 42 hours (lectures and tutoring sessions)

Assessment:

• Attending students: 65% Groupwork + 35% Written Exam
• Non attending students: 100% General Exam
• Groupwork: Paper of 4,000 words and students presentation on one of the following topics:
  • the biographical sketch of an entrepreneur
  • the story of an enterprise
• Exam structure:
  • Attending students: 20 multiple choice questions - 30-minute exam
  • Non attending students: Two open questions (50%, 25% each) and 10
    multiple choice questions (50%) - 50-minute exam

• Chandler, A. (1984), “The emergence of managerial capitalism”, Business History Review, 58 (4), pp. 473-503.
• Fear, G. (1997), “German Capitalism”. In Thomas K. McCraw (ed.), Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions, Harvard: Harvard University Press, pp. 133-;82.
• Jones, G. (1997), “Great Britain: Big business, management, and competitiveness in twentieth-century Britain”. In A. Chandler, F. Amatori, and T. Hikino (eds.), Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 102-38.
• Di Martino, P. and M. Vasta (2015), “Happy birthday Italy? Institutions and economic performance in Italy since 1861”, Enterprise and Society, 16 (2), pp. 291-312.
• Guriev, S. and A. Rachinsky (2005), “The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19 (1), pp. 131-;50.