Degree Course: Marketing and Quality Management Syllabus for A.Y. 2022/2023  

The course aims to provide the theoretical and methodological tools:
(i) to understand the structure of the economic system, with particular reference to the agri-food sector;
(ii) to identify the characteristics of the production and consumption processes of agri-food products and their implications on the environmental and social dimension;
(iii) to analyse the determinants of food consumers' choices and how these choices can drive the marketing strategies.

The course of Marketing & Big Data Analytics aims to make students understand how Marketing is a field in which data and data analytics play a critical role in decision-making. Market and customer insights provide recommendations for marketing decision-makers, and they must be handled regularly due to the dynamism of today’s market climate. As part of their marketing plan, organizations and decision-makers must consider data generated by customers and markets. For marketing decision-making, data must be used as a critical component of the marketing strategy.
Organizations are now applying big data analytics to understand their customers better and achieve optimum customer engagement. Big data are, however, not a solution but just raw material.
The challenge remains to transform the data into knowledge that managers can use to solve challenges and achieve improved performance.

The International Marketing course aims to provide students with the necessary information to set up an internationalisation pathway for companies from a strategic and operational point of view.
The student should be able to assess the opportunities arising from internationalisation in a target country and define the characteristics of the entry, from the operational mode to the definition of the marketing mix aspects in order to define a complete international marketing plan.
The student should be able to:
1) Knowledge and understanding: to know and understand the dynamics of international marketing and how management can accurately plan its operational levers;
2) Applying knowledge and understanding: to practically apply the knowledge acquired to develop international marketing plans;
3) Autonomy of judgement (making judgments): having autonomy of judgement and ability to apply methodologies and tools of international marketing in an independent and original way;
4) Communication skills: to communicate the knowledge acquired also through exercises and project work in comparison with other colleagues;
5) Learning skills: to learn a method of critical analysis and application of international marketing tools.

The learning objective of the course is to transfer, to the students, the knowledge on the principles, concepts and tools for managing sustainability and the environment.

Within the course, topics related to the management of the new circular paradigm are widely disseminated, with attention to resources, product / process, business models, and consumer behavior, together with other enabling factors, such as policies, role of technology, and stimulus tools.

Therefore, the expected learning outcomes are the following:

Knowledge and understanding:

The student will have acquired the knowledge and the ability to understand the reference framework for sustainable development and the Circular economy and the tools for managing environmental sustainability.

Application of knowledge

The student will be able to face the most recurring problems regarding sustainability and the Circular economy and understand the main organizational aspects and to identify the critical context variables.

Ability to draw conclusions

The student will be able to evaluate the circular contexts and the applicability of the Circular Economy models

Communication skills

The student will have acquired an appropriate language to express in a clear and correct way what he has learned from the study of the topics addressed.

Ability to learn

The student will be able to adequately use the acquired knowledge, methodologies and tools necessary for correct environmental management.

The course studies (1) consumer behavior, (2) consumer decision process, (3) customer satisfaction, (4) and customer loyalty (5) perceived quality. The understanding of these dimensions is important and useful for enterprises and institutions which operate in the market. The course studies also : (1) CRM, (2) Customer experience and (3) manage networks to improve customer relationship management performance.
Synthesis of the course
1. Relationship between quality / customer satisfcation / loyalty and analysis of consumer behavior: Expected Quality and perceived quality: ISO 9001 and customer, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty; Consumer behavior different approaches; Quality and customer satisfaction in the services - Servqual; Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty
2. Tools for measuring quality, satisfaction, loyalty and analysis tools in consumers' behavior: Tools Quantitative / Qualitative; the questionnaire, the focus groups; Regression models; correlation; Cluster Analysis, AID, QFD
1) Knowledge and understanding skills.
Understand the quality factors which influence consumer behavior and contribute to their satisfaction.
2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding.
Learning the basic tools, both quantitative and qualitative, necessary for customer satisfaction / customer loyalty analysis.
3) Autonomy of judgment.
Know how identify the key quality factors which influence consumer behavior, their satisfaction, and know how to implement this factors in all firms, both product and service sectors.
4) Communication Skills.
Ability to transfer data obtained from the application of measurement tools to reports.
5) Learning Skills.
Ability to know how to analyze the data obtained from both the relevant studies and the practical application of measuring tools, and transfer the results in strategic planning for the firms.

The course addresses the topic of digital transformation of organisations, and the consequent impacts on the way modern organisations work and operate. The course invites students to reflect on the changes, opportunities, risks, and consequences on the use of digital technologies in organisational design and change processes, and on the implications for organisational decision making and operational processes.

The course aims at transferring to the students theoretical knowledge and practical skills on the role of digital technologies in organisations, and on the competences and the processes necessary by individuals and organisations to govern this process.

During the course the students will be engaged in learning activities, both theoretical and practical ones, as individuals and in groups. The participation to the course will stimulate in students the development of the following capabilities.

Knowledge and comprehension
Understand the nature and impact of organisational change produced by the introduction of digital technologies in individual and groups behaviour.
Know the main information systems used in organisations.
Know the tools to analyse processes and guide the transformation processes through digital technologies.
Know the tools and the processes for analysing the information needs and for the design of or data analysis and presentation.

Applied knowledge
Being able to identify potential areas of application of digital technologies to solve organisational problems.
Being able to understand and govern the analysis of business processes and their re-engineering in the digital transformation.
Know how to identify and analyse the information needs of an organisation and how to design data analytics tools to satisfy such needs.
Know how to manage a digital transformation process through planning activities and estimating the effort, and know how to control the process using project management tools and techniques

Judgement capabilities
Know the main variables influencing the digital transformation process, know how to analyse them, and be able to judge if and when digital technologies can be used for organisational innovation and change.

Communication capabilities
During the course the students will practice the capabilities of presenting and discussing their ideas on the role of digital technologies in the transformation process of organisations.

Know how to learn
Being able to learn in an autonomous and self-management way.

In the age of digital transformation, an important part of information that can be used by companies can be derived from unstructured data stored in business documents (word, power point, and pdf), on the web (websites, blogs, and online communities), or on social media. These data constitute an important information pool for understanding the environmental phenomena and dynamics affecting the life of organizations. However, it is mostly textual information, and in an unstructured format. Moreover, it is information that has all the characteristics of speed, variety, and quantity that characterize big data.

This course addresses the technical challenges for organizations and the application tools to automatically identify, collect, extract, and analyze unstructured data sources from Web pages and social media.

The course theoretically introduces the fundamental organizational processes-sense making, decision making, and knowing-and the fundamentals of qualitative analysis and automatic text analysis. The course also provides theoretical knowledge about the mechanisms of operation of web technologies including: web and html protocols and standards, main mechanisms of operation of social media, APIs for accessing data on social media platforms, main technologies of data interchange between different platforms (csv, json).

For application purposes in the course, students will perform hands-on activities of extracting, manipulating and analyzing data taken from social media or websites. The knowledge, techniques, and tools learned during the course can also be used for the analysis of other types of unstructured data such as reports, documents, or document sources from databases.

During the course, students will be engaged in learning activities (both theoretical and applied) individually and in groups. Participation in the course is intended to stimulate in students the development of the following knowledge and skills.

Knowledge and understanding skills
Understand opportunities and limitations of big data, unstructured data, and automatic text analysis.
Know the basic organizational processes and the role that information plays within them.
Know the theoretical foundations and techniques required for the automatic extraction and analysis of data from unstructured text sources.

Applied knowledge and understanding skills
Recognize areas of practical applications of techniques for extracting, manipulating, and analyzing unstructured data.
Recognize opportunities and risks of using information from unstructured data sources, the Web, and social media.

Autonomy of judgment.
Understand whether and what data from unstructured sources (web and social media) can meet the information needs of individuals or organizations.
Understand which structured and unstructured information sources to integrate to meet the information need.
Know how to evaluate the information content-and any biases that may be present-within unstructured data. Know how to objectively interpret information obtained from automatic text analysis.

Communication skills.
During the course, students will train the ability to present, argue and discuss in public automatic text analysis tools and the interpretation of the results of the analysis performed.

Learning skills
Ability to approach the learning process in a fully autonomous and self-managed manner.

Expected learning outcomes
1) Knowledge and understanding.
Knowing the impact of innovation on production processes and new technologies
2) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding.
Learning of the necessary tools to correctly and efficiently implement the innovation tools in the production chains in the light of new technologies.
3) Autonomy of judgment.
Knowing how to identify what new technologies are and what are the effects of innovation in processes, especially production ones.
4) Communication skills.
Ability to transfer the acquired knowledge
5) Learning skills.
Ability to be able to analyze the effects of innovation and define strategic actions.