From MIT & Naples, Italy, A New Kind Of Entrepreneurship Master’s

PARTHENOPE-MIT MASTER IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION MANAGEMENT

Duration: 12 months

Class size: 50

Launch date: January 2022

Cost estimate for non-local student:

  • Tuition: €20.000 ($36,000)
  • Travel (IT-US) and accommodation (three weeks in Cambridge): $3,310
  • Daily Personal Expenses (Cambridge): $100/$120
  • Housing (12 Months In Naples): €4.000 ($7,200)
  • Weekly Personal Expenses (Naples): €210 ($378)
  • Financial support is available

How is this program different from what’s on the market?

Franco Calza: “Well, we have two points. The first one is our particular collaboration with MIT which is quite original in Europe. There’s only one other in Lisbon, but it is executive master. It’s very different by subject and, of course, profile of candidates. That’s quite original for us because in Europe, it’s the first experience with MIT. The second point is subject. Entrepreneurship and innovation management is not a traditional MBA program. Not necessarily accounting, not only management, not only technologies, but also many other subjects that are very informed by our experience with firms, large firms and small firms.

Marco Ferretti: We are looking to enhance the entrepreneurial aptitude of students, so we are trying to, let’s say, boost this aptitude in terms of ability to innovate, to manage innovation, to make entrepreneurial projects — which does not mean that necessarily you then have to become an entrepreneur or create a startup, but just that you also in your organization are able to bring an entrepreneurial spirit to then approach to managerial tasks.

Who is the ideal student for this program?

Franco Calza: Well, officially they should be finished — they should have their bachelor level, but of course this is a starting point. On the other side, we point to, of course, European students more than Asian and South American ones. This is our target by age and regional area.

As they are very young, their professional background is not necessarily very high, but of course they can have some experiences. Of course, we prefer persons who have working experiences or entrepreneur experiences because of the subject of the master.

What is the application process? Are GMAT/GRE scores required? Essays?

A bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited college or university is required to apply for the program.

Franco Calza: We prefer peer-to-peer conversation with the applicants. At the moment, we are having many conversations with them and measuring their standards. Soon after, they will be selected by English, but not necessarily using GMAT system.

Marco Ferretti: Talking with MIT, we agreed that in this phase, we will not make too strict the application — not too formal, let’s say. Obviously, we are somehow trying to also have a mentor in the initial phase for our possible candidates and during the process of evaluating them. It’s sort of providing support and evaluation together. That’s what we are doing. We are not having too much strict rules, let’s say, such as GMAT above some level or whatever.

What are the deadlines?
Final application deadline is October 29, 2021; selection will begin in November.

What will students learn? What is the program format?

Franco Calza: They will study management of course, but also big data and new technology management and innovation as well. Informatics. I don’t know if it is correct in English. As a matter of fact, we use three official master-level programs we have inside our university, international management, informatics, and engineering. Taking from these three master program features and subjects, we merged everything in the new master so that we create a sort of melting pot by which they can take subjects from these three areas, international management, informatics and engineering.

Marco Ferretti: If you just want a picture also of the timing of what will happen, we have some first part where we look at what are called management pillars. This is a block of classes on the pillars, the basic pillars. Then we have some more specific classes on a topic related to digital management, technology, innovation management, project management, and then something which is nice, we have some labs. These labs are about soft skills. We have a lab devoted only in the development of the soft skills of the students. Another lab is called entrepreneurship lab. A third lab is tech skill — this means not that they obviously become expert in terms of developing the technology, but expert in what the technology can provide the business, let’s say about artificial intelligence or big data or robotics. Tech skill in this sense, not in the sense of “I become a robotic engineer” or “I become a data scientist.” They become aware of these, let’s say, 4.0 technologies and how they can provide some innovation in the business.

Then as a last point, we provide the students with some particular training session on creative thinking, design thinking applied to real problems., based on a real case. Our partners provide the problem, and the students organize in teams address the problem with these creative thinking methodologies.

The last part is an internship, or an alternative: an entrepreneurial startup project. Students can either spend three months in an internship program or in developing a startup idea — an idea which is a project, but with the aim of also making this project as close as possible to become something that works.

What kind of outcomes are you hoping for?

Franco Calza: We can create a large network of collaboration with our partners, managers, and students, and of course alumni at the end of this first edition of the program. Finally, we imagine reinvesting in the future for new initiatives in this sense. It’s also part of our research program.

Marco Ferretti: In terms of placement: Essentially, our idea is that they can be hired by a successful company and they can bring innovation and an entrepreneurial approach to, for example, Italian companies or European companies that are not yet as innovative or as related to innovation as they would be. They could look at the master as a source of talented people that can help them to improve their degree of innovation. Obviously, also in terms of startup collaborations — in Italy, the startups are growing, so at least as a country there is a strong movement with startups.

Franco Calza: Also, many regional and national programs that will finance new startups. Mainly it’s technological.

Marco Ferretti: You may also see in some cases, for example, students that come from a family that have a family business, so these students can essentially become, for example, the new manager of these family businesses, which in Italy or in Europe are many. That’s why we focus on entrepreneurship and innovation management as a topic and as a type of learning process.

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