History of Entrepreneurship
A.Y. 2026/2027
Learning objectives
The course aims to offer knowledge and tools of critical analysis to understand the entrepreneur as a concrete protagonist of socio-economic life from the Middle Ages to today. By means of historical contextualization, the course intends to exemplify the businessman and the businesswoman over the long term and in various economic sectors with a particular focus on the forms of entrepreneurship in the field of printing and communication.
Expected learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students are expected to be able to:
- Understand and evaluate, through a comparative approach, the role of national and international contexts in laying down conditions and in determining the types of businesses and entrepreneurial choices, as well as their evolutionary dynamics;
- Understand the role of different national contexts in providing opportunities and/or in placing constraints on the actions of entrepreneurs;
- Analyse entrepreneurial choices and decision-making processes critically in relation to inertia and traditions, factors (or limits) of a technological nature, and short or long-term crises.
- Understand and evaluate, through a comparative approach, the role of national and international contexts in laying down conditions and in determining the types of businesses and entrepreneurial choices, as well as their evolutionary dynamics;
- Understand the role of different national contexts in providing opportunities and/or in placing constraints on the actions of entrepreneurs;
- Analyse entrepreneurial choices and decision-making processes critically in relation to inertia and traditions, factors (or limits) of a technological nature, and short or long-term crises.
Lesson period: Third trimester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Third trimester
Course syllabus
The course will focus on the theory and history of entrepreneurship according to the thought of Mark Casson: the evolution of the entrepreneur throughout history, the function of the entrepreneur in the economy and its multiple facets, and the entrepreneur's culture and social role. It will examine forms of entrepreneurship in the pre-industrial era—characterized by very high elements of risk and uncertainty—from a long-term perspective. The figure of the entrepreneur-merchant-banker, a key protagonist of economic and cultural life in cities, will be analyzed. The course will explore the constituent factors of the culture and knowledge base of merchant-entrepreneurs, and will delve into their education and training systems, starting with the teaching of accounting practices and measurement systems. Case studies will be examined from a specific manufacturing sector, printing, with a particular focus on the mercantile side of entrepreneurial activity. The tools available for developing control over the firm and market knowledge will be examined, with special attention to correspondence, the primary tool for governing and developing commercial and social networks. The course will then outline the essential elements for a history of women's entrepreneurship in Italy after Unification. Finally, the history of 20th-century Italian entrepreneurship up to the present day will be considered through the examination of specific figures of male and female entrepreneurs.
Prerequisites for admission
None
Teaching methods
The course consists of classroom lectures enhanced by online multimedia support and guest expert presentations. Students are encouraged to independently research and develop specific topics, which they will then present and discuss with their peers during class sessions.
Teaching Resources
For Attending Students:
The reference materials for the exam are the slides made available on the Ariel platform and the study of the following texts:
Mark Casson-Catherine Casson, L'imprenditore nella storia. Dal mercante medievale al moderno uomo d'affari (The Entrepreneur in History. From the Medieval Merchant to the Modern Businessman), Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2024 (up to page 115)
Adriana Castagnoli, L'imprenditoria femminile nell'Italia unita (Female Entrepreneurship in Unified Italy), in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero - Tecnica (The Italian Contribution to the History of Thought - Technology), Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 2013, pp. 401-416 https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/l-imprenditoria-femminile-nell-italia-unita_%28Il-Contributo-italiano-alla-storia-del-Pensiero:-Tecnica%29/
Pier Luigi Porta, Milano e la borghesia degli imprenditori (Milan and the Entrepreneurial Bourgeoisie), in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero - Tecnica (The Italian Contribution to the History of Thought - Technology), Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 2013 https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/milano-e-la-borghesia-degli-imprenditori_%28Il-Contributo-italiano-alla-storia-del-Pensiero:-Tecnica%29/
For Non-Attending Students:
In addition to the bibliography for attending students, non-attending students must add the following 5 articles:
Giorgio Roverato, La storia dell'industrializzazione della pianura padana (The History of Industrialization in the Po Valley), in Obiettivo sulla Pianura Padana : visioni interdisciplinari di una regione geo-culturale italiana (Focus on the Po Valley: Interdisciplinary Visions of an Italian Geo-cultural Region), edited by Gerhild Fuchs, Barbara Tasser, Innsbruck, Innsbruck University Press, 2009, pp. 67-79
Giuseppe De Luca, Nobili e imprenditori: l'inconsueto caso dei Visconti di Modrone (XVI-XX) (Nobles and Entrepreneurs: The Unusual Case of the Visconti di Modrone (16th-20th Centuries)), in Imprenditorialità e sviluppo economico. Il caso italiano (secc. XIII-XX) (Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. The Italian Case (13th-20th Centuries)), edited by Franco Amatori and Andrea Colli, Milan, Egea, 2009, pp. 442-458
Silvio De Majo, Un caso di capitalismo familiare nell'industria italiana della pasta: l'azienda Antonio Amato di Salerno nella seconda metà del Novecento (A Case of Family Capitalism in the Italian Pasta Industry: The Antonio Amato Company of Salerno in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century), Ibidem, pp. 461-499
Giovanni Favero, Marzotto dopo la rivoluzione: la ristrutturazione di una grande impresa tessile a controllo famigliare (Marzotto After the Revolution: The Restructuring of a Large Family-Controlled Textile Company), Ibidem, pp. 525-546
Ivan Paris, La moda come sistema. Integrazione di processo e differenziazione di prodotto (1951-1969) (Fashion as a System. Process Integration and Product Differentiation (1951-1969)), Ibidem, pp. 1425-1460
All these articles will be provided in digital format by the lecturer upon request from interested students.
The reference materials for the exam are the slides made available on the Ariel platform and the study of the following texts:
Mark Casson-Catherine Casson, L'imprenditore nella storia. Dal mercante medievale al moderno uomo d'affari (The Entrepreneur in History. From the Medieval Merchant to the Modern Businessman), Soveria Mannelli, Rubbettino, 2024 (up to page 115)
Adriana Castagnoli, L'imprenditoria femminile nell'Italia unita (Female Entrepreneurship in Unified Italy), in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero - Tecnica (The Italian Contribution to the History of Thought - Technology), Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 2013, pp. 401-416 https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/l-imprenditoria-femminile-nell-italia-unita_%28Il-Contributo-italiano-alla-storia-del-Pensiero:-Tecnica%29/
Pier Luigi Porta, Milano e la borghesia degli imprenditori (Milan and the Entrepreneurial Bourgeoisie), in Il contributo italiano alla storia del pensiero - Tecnica (The Italian Contribution to the History of Thought - Technology), Rome, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani, 2013 https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/milano-e-la-borghesia-degli-imprenditori_%28Il-Contributo-italiano-alla-storia-del-Pensiero:-Tecnica%29/
For Non-Attending Students:
In addition to the bibliography for attending students, non-attending students must add the following 5 articles:
Giorgio Roverato, La storia dell'industrializzazione della pianura padana (The History of Industrialization in the Po Valley), in Obiettivo sulla Pianura Padana : visioni interdisciplinari di una regione geo-culturale italiana (Focus on the Po Valley: Interdisciplinary Visions of an Italian Geo-cultural Region), edited by Gerhild Fuchs, Barbara Tasser, Innsbruck, Innsbruck University Press, 2009, pp. 67-79
Giuseppe De Luca, Nobili e imprenditori: l'inconsueto caso dei Visconti di Modrone (XVI-XX) (Nobles and Entrepreneurs: The Unusual Case of the Visconti di Modrone (16th-20th Centuries)), in Imprenditorialità e sviluppo economico. Il caso italiano (secc. XIII-XX) (Entrepreneurship and Economic Development. The Italian Case (13th-20th Centuries)), edited by Franco Amatori and Andrea Colli, Milan, Egea, 2009, pp. 442-458
Silvio De Majo, Un caso di capitalismo familiare nell'industria italiana della pasta: l'azienda Antonio Amato di Salerno nella seconda metà del Novecento (A Case of Family Capitalism in the Italian Pasta Industry: The Antonio Amato Company of Salerno in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century), Ibidem, pp. 461-499
Giovanni Favero, Marzotto dopo la rivoluzione: la ristrutturazione di una grande impresa tessile a controllo famigliare (Marzotto After the Revolution: The Restructuring of a Large Family-Controlled Textile Company), Ibidem, pp. 525-546
Ivan Paris, La moda come sistema. Integrazione di processo e differenziazione di prodotto (1951-1969) (Fashion as a System. Process Integration and Product Differentiation (1951-1969)), Ibidem, pp. 1425-1460
All these articles will be provided in digital format by the lecturer upon request from interested students.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The evaluation takes place by means of an oral exam: test questions to verify not only knowledge and comprehension but also communication skills about the themes in the course. The subject of the evaluation will possibly be the oral report presented by the student to the class.
For non-attending students, assessment is based on an oral exam covering a syllabus that includes some additional reading materials.
For non-attending students, assessment is based on an oral exam covering a syllabus that includes some additional reading materials.
HIST-04/C - Archiving, Bibliography and Librarianship - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Nuovo Angela Maria
Professor(s)