Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship - Lezione 1

Richiami di economia dell'innovazione

1. Chi è l'imprenditore secondo Schumpeter?

2. Che differenza c'è tra invenzione e innovazione?

3. Cos'è la distruzione creatrice?

4. Cos'è lo "status quo bias"?

1. Le imprese massimizzano i profitti?

2. Cos'è la bounded rationality?

3. Cosa sono le routine di una impresa?

4. Cosa si intende per meccanismo di selezione?

Il programma del corso

• Parte prima: Il nuovo prodotto. Capirne e catturarne e misurarne la novità.
• Parte seconda: La domanda e l'offerta dei prodotti innovativi.

Break: come si analizza un nuovo prodotto

• Parte terza: Elementi di strategia
• Parte quarta: Lavori di gruppo e presentazioni

Lezione 2

Definition

• Dominant design: Dominant design is a technology management concept introduced by Utterback and Abernathy in 1975, identifying key technological features that become a de facto standard.
• Shake-out: the moment in the industry life cycle when abruptly the number of entry collapse and number of exit rises, drastically reducing the total number of companies

High failure rates…classic challenges for start-ups

• The Industry life cycle
• The technology life cycle

Takeoff - establishing the dominant design:

• The way we do things around here – Model T
• Key Technical Components, Architecture
• Key Customer Needs: Who is going to buy this, how are they going to use it?
• Basic Elements of the Business System: How shall we structure the value chain?
• Hard to define ex ante

The Product/Process Transition

In the beginning: Innovation focuses around product concepts, is led by small firms, and is largely exploratory. Competition is on features: profits are made through differentiation.

Once a dominant design emerges: Innovation focuses around process, delivery, service. Most firms are forced out: the large firms that remain are increasingly structured, hierarchical. Profits fall as opportunities for differentiation fade.

S curve examples:

• Artificial Hearts
• Sailing ships
• Joint replacement
• Protein separation
• Switches
• Your favorite example

Lezione 3

Lezione 4: Culture - An underrated piece of the Adoption puzzle?

Why should we care about Culture?

Water boiling prevention to avoid infectious diseases. Efforts by the Peruvian government to diffuse innovative behaviour in rural areas partly failed.

Causes (Rogers, 2003):

• Missing human capital to understand problem
• Extension worker regarded as outsider
• Innovation perceived as not compatible with culturally defined hot-cold classification

More recent examples:

• Ebola vaccination in West Africa
• Usage of toilets in India

Relative Advantage

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• Increase in comfort, quality of illumination, education, health, safety, social life
• Saving of time and effort, charging of mobile phones, diminishing demand for biomass (i.e. wood, etc.), candles and kerosene
• Economic profitability, monetary savings, business opportunities (Micro-Business), almost no running costs

Increase in discomfort

• Vermins (i.e. small animals, insects, etc.)

Obstacles

• Performance constraints
• Relative high initial costs

Compatibility

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• Needs of potential adopters
• Past experiences
• Socio-cultural values and beliefs

Complexity

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• Easy understanding and use of technology
• Installation requires specific knowledge
• Maintenance

Trialability & Observability

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• Light vs. no light (in unelectrified areas or during power cuts)
• Risk of theft

What is Culture?

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"[...] customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious, and social groups transmit fairly unchanged from generation to generation." - Guiso et al. (2006), "Does Culture Affect Economic Outcome", Journal of Economic Perspectives

"If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference." - Landes (1998), "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations"

"It is as unthinkable to study diffusion without some knowledge of the social structures in which potential adopters are located as it is to study blood circulation without adequate knowledge of the veins and arteries." - Katz (1961), "The Social Itinerary of Social Change: Two Studies on the Diffusion of Innovation"