E-BUSINESS

Among the optional courses of the degree course of Business Economics and Management, eBusiness aims at providing students with a set of methodological and practical tools in the use of information and communication technologies at the firm and market level. The objectives of the course deal with the impact determined by digital technologies in the transformations of business strategies, in the relationships between business and final customers, in the use and promotion of the intellectual property and in the transformation of manufacturing processes. The achievement of these objectives allows the student to appropriately frame the topics discussed during the other exams related to business management by evaluating the impact of digital technologies and their implications on the managerial level.

The course aims at teaching the typical language of the digital community and the main theories that have characterized the discontinuity of the so-called "new economy". The course aims to develop the ability to apply this knowledge in understanding the transformation processes of the typical sectors of the Italian economy and to develop a specific ability to solve problems in the evolution of established business models.

The course attendance and the exam require that the student has already passed the Business Economics course.

1st week: Digital in business: a thirty-year-long transformation.
This week we discuss the introduction of new technologies in business management by analyzing with particular attention the impact of ERP platforms and their implications in terms of business strategy.
2nd week: Virtual communities of consumers
This week we analyze the relationship between business and consumer determined by the impact of the Internet and the Web with particular attention to the enjoyment of virtual communities.
3rd Week: Electronic Commerce
In this week the topic of electronic commerce is analyzed starting from the quantitative dimension of the phenomenon, from the priorities and the choices of the companies and from the opportunities offered by the technological transformations underway.
4th Week Platforms Economy
This week the concept of the digital platform is deepened and the implications for enterprise strategies and work organization are analyzed.
5th week Industry 4.0
This week we describe the outlines of the so-called 4th industrial revolution and describe the impacts of 4.0 technologies in some key sectors of Made in Italy
5th week: 5 weeks eBusiness and manufacturing

First week
Micelli, Stefano (2000), "Companies, networks and virtual communities", Etas: Milan, chap. 2 (available in the BEC library); Kelly, Kevin (1997), "New Rules for the New Economy." Wired 5, no. 9 (https://www.wired.com/1997/09/newrules/ )
Second week
O'Reilly, Tim, "What is web 2.0", O'reilly.com (https://www.oreilly.com/pub/a//web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html ); Cova, B. (1997). "Community and consumption: towards the definition of the linking value of products or services", European Journal of Marketing, 31 (3/4), 297-316. (available in the BEC library); Bernoff, J., Li, C., (2008), "Harnessing the power of the Oh-So-Social Web", MIT Sloan Management Review, vol 49, n. 3. (available in the BEC library)
Third Week
Casaleggio e Associati (2016), "E-commerce in Italy 2016", download after free registration
Fourth week
Anderson, Chris (2004), "The Long Tail." Wired 12, no. 10 (https://www.wired.com/2004/10/tail/ )
Batelle, John (2005), "The Birth of Google." Wired 13, no. 9 (https://www.wired.com/2005/08/battelle/ )
Economist (2013), "The rise of the sharing economy", available on the website Economist.com and Blanchard O. (2015), "Stop calling it the sharing economy", on the olivierblanchard.net website
Fifth week
Anderson Chris (2010), "In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits", Wired, January 25; (Https://www.wired.com/2010/01/ff_newrevolution/ )
Economist (2012), "The third Industrial Revolution", available on the Economist.com website

The evaluation of the learning process includes a written test aimed at testing the learning of the basic knowledge discussed in class and a series of questions aimed at evaluating skills acquired in solving problems related to the digital transformation of companies. In general, the test consists of 25 questions, some of which are multiple choice, others with free answers. The duration of the exam is usually 45 minutes.
Attending students will have the opportunity to participate in group exercises that will be evaluated with respect to the ability to represent problems in an original way on the basis of the categories proposed in the classroom.

The course is divided into
- a series of lectures on the key topics of the exam
- presentations given by digital managers and entrepreneurs
- a series of exercises developed by small groups of students on topics identified and discussed in class.

Italian

written