Broaden Your Knowledge

Cognitive Economics
26 October 2023 6:00pm (CET) 
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Nicola Gennaioli
Full Professor of Financial Markets

The lesson 
This lecture will illustrate the role of human cognitive factors in financial markets, in consumer markets and in politics, and discuss recent approaches to integrate these factors into economic models, modifying the rational actor paradigm in realistic ways.

Omnichannel Customer Experience in the Fashion and Luxury Business
20 November 2023 6:00pm (CET) 
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Emanuela Prandelli
LVMH Associate Professor of Fashion & Luxury Management

The lesson 
Social interaction in the digital world is increasingly enhancing the scope of content created by the same consumers, by raising user involvement, personalization, and gamification. Web 4.0 is further expanding the landscape through the power of big data, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence, which enable the projection into the future of the incredible amount of information collected through digital interaction, to predict future behaviors. This is a paramount potential gold-mine for entrepreneurs and managers in the fashion and luxury world, who have always struggled with the prediction of future trends. However, this scenario also requires fashion and luxury managers to rethink their brand's relations with the market. Customer experience has to be enhanced by a local touch in a seamless phygital environment, while preserving consistency not to compromise brand positioning. At the same time, it’s no longer enough to have a high price point to be desirable: brands are also required to identify with strong values where customers can mirror and consolidate cohesive communities to raise successful products. Finally, exclusivity is no longer enough: customers search for unique products and customization can come to play a major role, and may also be detrimental to brand recognizability.

Intro to Natural Language Processing 
11 May 2023 6:00pm Click here to check your timezone 
 

Debora Nozza
Assistant Professor of Computing Sciences

The lesson 
Have you ever wondered how Siri or Alexa can understand and respond to our voice commands? Or how Google can translate text into different languages?
These are just a few examples of the amazing capabilities of natural language processing or NLP. In this masterclass, we will explore the fundamental concepts and techniques behind NLP. We will learn how computers can process, analyze, and even generate human language.

Temporary Layoffs, Loss-of-Recall, and Cyclical Unemployment Dynamics
3 April 2023 6:00pm CEST - Click here to check your timezone 

Antonella Trigari
Director, MSc in Economic and Social Sciences
Full Professor of Economics

The lesson
During the pandemic recession, temporary layoffs surged unprecedentedly. This masterclass explores cyclical unemployment dynamics, particularly temporary layoffs and the increase in "loss-of-recall" during recessions, whereby workers in temporary layoff unemployment lose their job permanently. We will dive deep into the contribution of temporary layoffs to unemployment dynamics from 1979 to the present, closely comparing pre- and post-pandemic. While historically there has been a stabilizing effect due to recall hiring, there is now an important destabilizing effect as a result of loss-of-recall. Lastly, we will discuss how the Paycheck Protection program generated significant employment gains by considerably reducing loss-of-recall.

Governing Trends in Cybersecurity 
20 February 2023 6:00pm CET - Click here to check your timezone

Greta Nasi
Co-Director, MSc In Cyber Risk Strategy and Governance
Associate Professor of Public Administration

The lesson
Governing cyberspace is becoming an essential concern in many domains. This masterclass discusses the existing strategies for cybersecurity and focuses on defending organizations, institutions, and states from threats to integrity and availability. During the masterclass, we will approach definitions, and frameworks and argue that a cyber strategy should contemplate values beyond security to ensure the wellbeing of individuals, the competitive advantage of firms and the prosperity of states.

The Surprising Resilience of Family Firms (and the Role Entrepreneurial NextGen Members Can Play)
29 November 2022 6:00pm CET – Click here to check your timezone

Carlo Salvato
Dean, Graduate School
Full Professor of Business Strategy

The lesson
Recent disruptive events, such as COVID, wars, and economic turmoil, have shown that a fundamental ability of firms is their resilience – the ability not only to survive, but to capitalize on destructive surprises, coming out stronger and more entrepreneurial. In this Masterclass, we will discuss how firms can be resilient to external shocks and why family firms can be even more resilient and entrepreneurial. Through the outcomes of two recent Bocconi research projects, we will identify the determinants of resilience in any firm, zooming in on the role of the controlling family in amplifying the resilience of their controlled businesses. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of young NextGen members in helping their family firms survive and thrive in the long run through startups and innovative entrepreneurial ideas.

How Established Firms Can Use Technology to Make the World More Sustainable
28 October 6 pm CET - Click here to check your timezone
 

Markus Venzin
Dean for Innovation
Full Professor of Global Strategy

The lesson
This session will start with a focus on how the pressure for more sustainability and the promise of digital transformation – and tech transformation more in general – forces mature companies to embrace activities of corporate entrepreneurship, either through developing ideas from inside the firm or by engaging with startups early enough to team up with them. But such corporate entrepreneurship initiatives can only develop if firms manage to boost their entrepreneurial energy to compensate for market and firm uncertainties. 
 

Democracy, Populism and the Future of International Cooperation
24 January 6pm CET - Click here to check your timezone 
 

Catherine De Vries
Dean for Diversity and Inclusion
Full Professor of Political Science

The lesson
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a true stress test for political systems across the globe. In an effort to suppress the virus, governments resorted to extraordinary and often draconian measures, such as restrictions on individual movement, physical distancing requirements, and border closures, to name a few. While these measures were extraordinary, so was the first public response to them. Incumbents around the globe experienced rising popularity. Yet this didn't always last. Indeed, the extraordinary and draconian measures to curb the virus may carry risks for the future. For one, while closing down private businesses or school closures might have been necessary from an epidemiological perspective, they exacerbate existing economic inequality and social exclusion. This could prove very damaging in the long term and fuel a revival of populism. What’s more, draconian measures may provide a pretest to encroach further on fundamental democratic rights. There is a danger that such sweeping executive powers could lead to a lasting erosion of key liberal democratic norms in society. Against this backdrop, we will discuss the future for democracy, populism and international cooperation as countries aim to move out of the pandemic.

Cybercrime, Secrecy, and Trust
24 February 6pm CET - Click here to check your timezone 
 

Hannes Wagner
Associate Professor of Finance

The lesson
Cybercrime frequently interacts with financial markets and institutions. New types of crime, sophistication, and truly global scale make cybercrime a top concern for the economy as a whole. At the same time, hacking and data breaches are accelerating, leading to an unprecedented assault on the existing (financial) plumbing. In this Masterclass, we will address the outlook for trust and secrecy in financial markets, how distributed ledgers and blockchain may or may not offer solutions, and we will draw conclusions for skills and the jobs of the future.
 

Can We Hack Democracy? 
30 March 6pm CEST - Click here to check your timezone 
 

Gaia Rubera 
Head of the Department of Marketing 
Amplifon Chair in Customer Science 
Full Professor of Marketing

The lesson
This Masterclass aims to discuss how the combination of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Media could jeopardize democracy. We will discuss the Cambridge Analytica case, use of social bots in infodemics and why it is challenging for current Machine Learning models to detect them. We conclude with a discussion of the latest perils that AI poses, such as deepfakes.
 

Transformative Sustainability
2 May 6pm CEST - Click here to check your timezone 
 

Stefano Pogutz 
Head of Vertical on Sustainability at B4i Bocconi for Innovation
Researcher with Tenure

The lesson
Business organizations are embedded in social-ecological systems, and their activities impact and depends on social-ecological processes, dynamics and resilience. This session aims to illustrate the implications of planetary challenges – e.g. climate change, inequality, resource scarcity – on business. We will address how business can integrate sustainability into strategy processes and generate value, moving from a compliance perspective to a transformative approach, where the corporate goal is to create a positive impact on society and the environment, and sustainability guides innovation processes along the entire value chain.