Innovation Management is nowadays a recognized discipline that concerns scientific knowledge and professional skills. In the current economic environment, the transfer of technological development results into products and services, which must be both profitable for businesses and useful to society, is in fact not immediate and requires special capabilities. Capabilities and skills required are transversal and common to the different expressions of technology as well as to various industrial sectors. In this sense, they constitute a fundamental cultural and professional background to the Managerial Engineer.
The Innovation Management covers both strategic and technical-operational decisions. Among the former ones we can mention the strategic analysis of sectors and markets, the management of project portfolios, the development of resources and competences, the definition and economic evaluation of development projects and related ' business models '. On the operational side, we can instead cite market research in support of the technical specification of the product or the use of methodologies in support of engineering, and operational management of development projects.

At the end of the course, students will have acquired a concrete ability to analyze and manage business decisions related to technological innovation in both strategic and operational terms.

I – Technological Innovation, companies and sectors: Reference to the theory of the firm according to Nelson and Winter. Determinants, taxonomies and dynamics of innovation, dominant design and standard. Innovation in business models. Technological forecasting.
II – Innovation and strategy: The relationship between innovation and the different strategic approaches (product portfolio management, the competitive advantage theory according to Porter, Resource-based theory). Innovation strategy through competence development and project portfolio management.
III – Organization of the innovation processes: Current and traditional approaches to the organization of the product development. Project management in the new product development field (planning, scheduling and DSM methods).
IV – The new product development process: Qualitative and quantitative approaches for market research. Product diffusion models. Product planning. Design methods. Product architecture design methods. Concept selection methods. Value Engineering and Embodiment design.

The course consists of lectures, with extensive use of case studies drawn from experience and empirical research, and practices in which students are required to use quantitative tools.

Slides on the portal
Schilling, M.A. (2008): Strategic Management of Technological Innovation. Mc Graw-Hill Irwin.
Ulrich K., Eppinger S. (2007), 'Product Design and Development', 4th edition, Mc Graw Hill.

The written exam consists of two parts, to attend on the same day: a practical part (with use of texts and notes) and a theoretical part (with the ‘book closed’). The final mark is given by the sum of the grades received in the examination and the ones achieved with the 'papers' about results of the laboratory exercises. To pass is however required to achieve a minimum level of score both in the practice that in the theoretical part. Teacher can also ask for integration with an oral examination.