Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation

The School of Economics of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano offers a biennal (120 CPs) and trilingual Master of Sciences in Entrepreneurship and Innovation which offers students the theoretical skills and analytical tools, also of a quantitative kind, helpful to understand Entrepreneurship and Innovation from an economic perspective and from the point of view of Enterprise management.   The conditions for the establishment of new enterprises, the ability to recognize opportunities offered by the market, the analysis of human, economic or financial resources which are necessary for the creation and the development of the new enterprise, are some of the topics which characterize entrepreneurship. In this study course Innovation is intended in an extensive way, as the generation of new knowledge applied for the development of products, managerial processes, organizational solutions and strategies. Innovation as a study subject is therefore not intended as mainly technological but encompasses all forms of organizational and entrepreneurial innovation.

The main objectives of this study course are threefold:    
1) to provide students with the critical and analytical skills necessary to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities and operate in an International economic context;
2) to prepare students to fill managerial positions, take strategic and operative decisions, to face and solve decision-making problems and problems in the management of innovations;
3) to consolidate the local and international reputation of this innovative and ambitious study course.

Description of the Study Course
The study of entrepreneurship and innovation is put is set in the context of  other more generic problems concerning the runnling, the management and organization of the enterprise. An integrated, multidisciplinary and intercultural perspective is suggested.The  Economcs of Innovation, Innovation Management, Development of new products, Entrepreneurial Finance, Bank contract law, Intellectual Property Law, Tools for market Forecasting, Entrepreneurship for the Third Sector, Innovation of services, Management of the productivity chain are some of the lectures and contents which distinguish this study course. The contents of the lectures and the didactic approach exemplify multidisciplinary integration and the intercultural dimension. The topics of entrepreneurship and innovation are approached from different study perspectives, in order to accustom the students to analyzing entrepreneurial situations in their complexity and considering the opportunities and consequences of decisions from different points of view. This choice seems particularly appropriate for decisions characterized by uncertainty. A qualifying element of this educational path is represented by the “Entrepreneurial Laboratory”, which is a formative context in which the course contents belonging to heterogeneous disciplinary fields are linked in a systematic way, applying didactic learning methods based on problems. In the laboratory the progressively acquired skills are utilized by the students in order to analyze real situations. The intercultural vision of this study course is primarily composed of three elements: in the constant referring to the cultural dimension that characterizes the behavior of economic actors operating in a European or International context, in the admission criteria that make this course accessible to students coming from heterogeneous places, with heterogeneous training and background as well as in the trilingual model. The objective of the acquisition of the three languages (Italian, German, English) is obtained through cultural initiatives (for example: seminars and conferences, exhibits, involvement of members of the civil society) proposed to students by the university in the three teaching languages and with all forming activities of the study course (lectures, presentations, articles, exercitations, examinations) taking place in the three official languages. This model gives students the opportunity to learn languages by using them. Furthermore students have the opportunity to use the services of the Language Centre in order to acquire the necessary language skills or to improve their own level of knowledge. During their studies students have to perform an internship which is considered  a fundamental mandatory training activity in order to develop the capacity to use the knowledge acquired during their studies in order to afford a problem in a specific productive context. Finally there is the final dissertation for which 15 CPs are assigned. The production of a paper of advanced level with an original content is required. For the preparation of the dissertation the student re-evaluates the acquired skills in order to be able to classify, deepen and analyze a topic or a case in a critical and autonomous way.


Professional outcomes
With the achievement of these specific objectives the graduates of the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation get a range of advanced skills as particularly professional and well prepared to draft and found new entrepreneurial activities, to analyze entrepreneurial projects, to manage innovations and development of new products. The first professional outcome might be the opportunity to found a new enterprise, combining entrepreneurial, economic-managerial and financial skills with a solid knowledge of the development processes concerning new products in a new enterprise. The employment in the private sector as well as in the public sector on a National as well as International level constitutes a significant occupational prospective for a graduate of the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. As a matter of fact the entrepreneurial logic is applied in a very wide-ranging manner also inside middle to big-sized enterprises (internal entrepreneurship) and in the field of the so-called third sector (social entrepreneurship) as a form of management and leadership of organizations and for the allocation of resources. At the end of this study course the graduates of the Master can be employed as: project managers for the development of new products, people in charge of  research and development divisions, people responsible for the development and realization of “business-plans”, people in charge of  market analysis with a particular attention to innovative products, managers for the governing of economic-productive systems of high interdependency and oriented towards a diffuse entrepreneurship. Finally, the acquired skills will consent the graduates of the Master to continue their studies enrolling for a second level or a research doctorate (PhD). The natural follow-on concerns doctorate courses focused on the topics of Entrepreneurship, Innovation Management or International management.

Fees and tuition
The overall annual tuition fee for the academic year 2010-2011 is € 1,280.50 and it applies to both full-time and part-time students.  

Grants and internship
Enrolled students, who are younger than 40 years, may apply for grants that are offered by the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano. These study grants are assigned every year. Eligible students receive a complete reimbursement of the paid study fees and a yearly amount of money up to € 6,600, according to personal or family income. Furthermore the administration of the Province of South Tyrol offers other study grants meant for particularly worthy students, which are assigned on meritorious bases only, regardless the applicant income. Detailed information about these grants is available under the "Funding and study grants" section at the Prospective students web page. Internship is a fundamental part in the Master programme. Information about the internship opportunities is provided by the University Careers Advisory Service.

The Degree Programme Council of the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Director: Prof. Francesco Ciabuschi
Members: Prof. Paolo Giudici, Prof. Burkhard Heer
Students' representative: Ms Marlene Bleicher
Secretary: Ms. Carola Messner