2024

Innovation and Competitiveness

Name: Innovation and Competitiveness
Code: ECN13501M
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours
Scientific Area: Economy

Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese
Regime de Frequência: Presencial

Sustainable Development Goals

Learning Goals

Being innovation a keystone of business competitiveness and socio-economic development of any country or region, this course aims to highlight the importance of innovation and technological change in the context of socio-economic change, emphasize the role of the scientific and technological knowledge in the process of innovation, the development of new industries and competitiveness, and explain the role of firms, institutions and public policies in the systemic process of innovation, the production and transference of scientific and technological knowledge.

At the end of the course students should be able to:
- Think critically about the motivations and implications of innovation;
- Understand the role of intangible assets in a knowledge-based economy;
- Understand the role of enterprises and institutions in the innovation process;
- Discuss and justify the involvement of the state in matters of science, technology and innovation.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. The concept of innovation – Concept, objectives and typology. Invention, innovation and diffusion.
3. The process of innovation – Creative destruction and technological revolutions. Innovation models.
4. Knowledge – Intangible assets. Economics of knowledge. Typology of knowledge. Encoding, transfer and learning.
5. Research and development – Definition of R&D. R&D intensity. Investment, financing and R&D policy.
6. Intellectual property – Intellectual and industrial property. Patent systems. Protection of knowledge. R&D-patents relationship.
7. Innovation and competitiveness – Technology intensity. Sources, diffusion and adoption of innovation. Technological trajectories. Innovation and cooperation.

Teaching Methods

The classroom sessions are theoretical-practical by combining the presentation of theory with application examples. Besides theory presentation, classroom sessions include the discussion of concrete innovation situations and group work presentation and discussion at the end of the semester. Teaching methods include:
- the theoretical exposition in the classroom assisted by PowerPoint slides;
- the use of the Internet for real-time access to relevant documents and websites;
- analysis and discussion of empirical cases from news, articles, reports and documents;
- presentation and discussion in classroom of group works;
- carry out of practical questions over the semester which become available on the Moodle course page;

The course assessment has three main components:
- Practical questions (15%)
- Group work (50%);
- Written exam at the end of the semester (35%);
Or,
- Final exam (100%).

Teaching Staff