Location:

Rome, Italy; Shanghai, China

Program Type:

Study Abroad

Degree Level:

Undergraduate

Term:

Summer

Program Overview

Program Description:

The mode of instruction consists of interactive lectures, business case and presentations etc. This course has been designed for students of social sciences (incl. law, business, commerce), sciences and engineering at senior undergraduate or graduate level with an interest in entrepreneurship. A general background in economics and business may help, but no specific expertise is required. This course is taught by Prof. Hein Roelfsema from Utrecht University and Dr. Andrea Prencipe from LUISS Business School, Rome. Prof. Roelfsema is the Director of the Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship at Utrecht University. His current research focuses on management practices and entrepreneurship, especially in Asia. Professor Prencipe is an expert on innovation issues in firms, including strategic management of technological and organizational innovation; organizational learning in project-based organizations; implications of modularity on the division and coordination of labor; social capital and innovation processes. He has published articles on this subject in management journals – e.g. Administrative Science Quarterly and Organization Science – as well as in major innovation journals – e.g. Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, and Journal of Product Innovation Management. He has also edited books for Edward Elgar and Oxford University Press.

This course is taught at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) and LUISS Business School, Rome (Rome, Italy) as part of the China Europe International Summer School (CEISS). Through this spectacular four-weeks special track programme, you will familiarize yourself with the complexities of the global marketplace and the state-of-the-art of modern management, entrepreneurship and innovation around the globe, while you travel around the world to visit two of the world’s most impressive cities in two continents: Rome, Italy and Shanghai, China. Starting in glorious Rome, hosted by LUISS Business School, you will study how Italy has managed to develop and maintain a competitive lead worldwide in a range of prominent industries such as agri-food, fashion, design and mechanical industries. Conventional wisdom holds that management models, techniques, and tools are universal. Nevertheless, cultural, geographical, historical and industrial specificities that embed organizations and professionals are tremendous sources of "bias" on the otherwise universal managerial models. Indeed, specific management practices can be used to explain why and how some industries and organizations are more successful than others. "Made in Italy" is a label that includes the agri-food, fashion, design and mechanical industries wherein Italian organizations have managed to develop and maintain a competitive lead worldwide. The first part of this course therefore exposes students to theories as well as practices and experiences of Made in Italy through interactive lectures, case discussion sessions, guest speakers, and company’s visits to better understand innovation and marketing practices developed and deployed by “Made in Italy” organizations. The business course focuses on four major topics: 1. Cultural Dimensions of Doing Business in Italy and in the EU 2. Marketing of Made In Italy 3. Business models innovations in Italian apparel industry 4. Made in Italy and Chinese market: protection of Intellectual Property You will then fly to vibrant Shanghai, hosted by Fudan University, where you dive into the world of modern entrepreneurship and innovation. Entrepreneurship is on the rise across the globe. Many high-skilled people start ambitious ventures to take advantage of global opportunities. In addition, many large firms change their business practices to foster intrapreneurship: the entrepreneurial behaviour of their employees. Lastly, most will agree that the complex challenges like sustainability, energy supply, agglomeration, health care and more require entrepreneurial solutions. This second part of the course offers students a toolbox for both start-up entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship. Further, it places entrepreneurship and innovation in the context of the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem and policy domain, and in particular in Sino European comparative perspective.

Setting Description:

Fudan University is the most prestigious, research-oriented university in Shanghai, and belongs with Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing to China’s top-3 universities. In the QS ranking of world universities for 2014/2015, Fudan University is ranked 71st worldwide, and 3rd overall among Chinese universities. Fudan is a member of Universitas 21, an association of leading research-oriented universities worldwide. There are 30.000 students at Fudan, including 5.000 international students. Fudan’s prestigious School of Social Development and Public Policy (SSDPP) is one of the global strongholds in the teaching and research in social development studies. The SSDPP has over 60 fulltime faculty members, including world-renowned scholars like Wang Guixin and Peng Xizhe. Its international cooperation extents to such partners such as Harvard University, London School of Economics and Political Science, US Berkeley, University of Hong Kong, Trinity College, University of Oslo,

Cost:

2.900 Euro (course fee + course materials + housing + social programme)