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University of Rome "Tor Vergata"
Academic Year 2013/14
Second Semester
Master of Science in Business Administration
Course:
Innovation and Cognitive Economics
Prof. Riccardo Cappellin
Exam: 6 May 2014
The available time: 1 hour 30’. Please write with good handwriting and do not use more tha 34 pages as the others will not be read.
QUESTION 1:
Indicate the typology of sectors proposed by Pavitt. Illustrate the main characteristics of each of
these sectors. Finally, illustrate according to a figure the relationships of technological dependence
between these different sectors (lecture 3).
QUESTION 2:
By making reference to the contribution by Antonelli on the various concepts of knowledge,
illustrate the following characteristics of the approach of knowledge as a “private good”. Illustrate
the characteristics of this type of knowledge, the process of knowledge creation, the models of
corporate governance, the instruments of public policies and the still unsolved policy problems, the
role of tacit knowledge, the processes of learning, the conditions of appropriability, the role of the
large firms, of the financial markets and of the universities (lecture 5).
QUESTION 3:
Define the key elements of a network. Illustrate the types of changes in the structure of a network.
Illustrate why these changes of the network structure are related to technological change and how a
network model may illustrate the interaction between the actors and/or the combinatory character of
the process of creation of new knowledge. The network approach may be used not only as
descriptive framework of the relations between the actors in an economy but also as the conceptual
framework for an economic growth model. In particular, illustrate the equations of this model which
refer respectively to: 1) the balance between supply and aggregate demand, 2) the constraint by the
production capacity, 3) the measurement of the production capacity, 4) the endowment of resources,
5) the level of productivity (lecture 9).
QUESTION 4:
Illustrate the following characteristics of service activities: immateriality, inseparability,
heterogeneity and the role of human resources. In particular, indicate why in the case of the tourist
services there is a tight interaction between the users, between the suppliers and between the users
and the suppliers. Illustrate why in a theoretical perspective it is possible to indicate that all service
activities are characterized by the management of the “transaction costs” in the monetary exchange
of the material goods between the different actors and by the management of the “adjustment costs”
in the solution of specific problems when there is the need of a sharing of information between the
user and the provider of the service (lecture 13).