MANAGEMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

This course introduces students to the basic concepts and to the uniqueness of family firms. Its primary purpose is to allow students to understand the real opportunities for growth and development of small and medium-sized family firms.The course formative objectives are:understanding opportunities and criticalities related to the family businessesapplying both logic and judgement in analyzing situations working on problem based learning to understand more in depth the concepts detailed during classes.

Students are expected to have knowledge in fundamentals of strategy management.

Acquisition of transversal knowledge regarding the management of family businesses. Ability to evaluate the distinctive characteristics of family businesses. Ability to use the main tools for analyzing resources and skills and the competitive environment. Ability to interact with others during lessons and during workgroups.

The course attempts to grant participants with the economic tools and basic concepts related to understanding the main managerial and organizational themes in terms of structure and processes of a family

The book adopted is the following: The Handbook of Family Business Edited by Fabio Corsico with Chiara Acciarini and Enzo Peruffo. Furthermore, the slides presented during the course are published on the Moodle platform

Class-work: 20%Team works with a final presentation: 40%Problem-based learning: 40%

The final grade (attending) consists of:Team works with a final presentation: 30% + Oral examination: 70%The final grade (for non-attending) consists of an oral examination.

No merit criterion is required for thesis assignment (mean, 'grades, language skills, etc.). The only criterion followed is the assignments chronology. A proposal must be presented in order to indicate the central idea and the topic that will be addressed in the thesis. Students have to provide a two or three pages word document, including bibliography, which describe in summary: - Reference literature: generical sources (e.g. Google), industrial sources (e.g. Il sole 24 ore, The economist, Il mondo) and related scientific literature ((http://www.luiss.it/biblioteca/banche_dati / index. php). - the research question. It’s a question of one or two lines that exactly identifies the problem that the thesis aims to solve. - Students have to argument the importance and the need to give a scientific answer to identified question, in order to exclude irrelevant unanswered questions. The research question can be considered significant from the theoretical point of view (since defines a logical step missing in the understanding of some processes) or from an empirical one (as it seeks to describe a phenomenon not fully understood), or by both. – Methodology to be followed: Case studies, interviews, data collection through questionnaires