From MIT & Naples, Italy, A New Kind Of Entrepreneurship Master’s
The Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management is a collaboration between Parthenope University of Naples and MIT Sloan School of Management
Naples, Italy and Boston, Massachusetts could not be more different in climate or culture, making a collaboration between business schools in those two cities unusual, to say the least.
But business knowledge is, in many ways, universal. Fresh evidence of this truth comes from this seemingly out-of-the-ordinary partnership with the announcement of a new master’s degree, launching early next year.
The Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management is a new study program offered by Parthenope University in collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management. Students in the one-year program, numbering around 50 in the first cohort, will attend weeks of classes at MIT, ranked No. 6 by Poets&Quants, as part of a program that seeks to “empower your entrepreneurial and managerial aptitude, enhance your competences, and start a successful career in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management.”
MEIM IS PART OF A NEW 5-YEAR PARTNERSHIP SIGNED IN MAY
MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein: “We are thrilled to be expanding our outreach in Europe.” File photo
Applications for the Parthenope/MIT MEIM, which carries a tuition price tag of $36,000, are now open; deadline to apply is October 29.
The program is the first in a five-year partnership signed between the schools in May, says Marco Ferretti, professor in Parthenope’s Department of Management and Quantitative Sciences and MEIM program head. The idea, Ferretti tells P&Q, emerged from Parthenope’s partnership with MIT through the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program in Campania, of which Naples is the capital.
Campania is home to universities, public research institutes, and technology clusters; it is also a manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and construction hub. MIT REAP Team Campania “seeks to leverage sea-land logistics and the maritime industry, due to their significance in the regional economy”; out of this program — heavy on the development of local innovation systems — came the idea for the new MEIM, Ferretti says.
“We were part of this MIT research program for almost three years,” he says. “We were in touch with them, and so we started to develop this idea one year ago. After one year, we decided to enter this five-year agreement partnership for this program. Two months ago, we signed the agreement, so we just started this new master’s, and indeed the first edition of the master will start January 2022.” He adds that the second cohort will likely begin in September rather than January 2023.
As it did many things in the graduate business education world, coronavirus set planning for the new MEIM back — but it couldn’t kill the idea or the program.
“The problem was in defining the collaboration with MIT, because also MIT was closed and it was very difficult to sign everything,” says Franco Calza, Parthenope’s deputy vice-rector. “We started without any collaboration in creating the master with our colleagues in MIT. Later, we had the problem to decide if the master would be in-person or remote. Finally, we decided to make it in-person starting by January 2022.”
The MEIM program’s primary location in Naples, about 140 miles southeast of Rome, should be an advantage, Calza tells P&Q.
“We trust we will start in person, of course,” he says. “January should be quite safe. This is another point. It is located in Naples, of course, an old and very beautiful site on the hills here near the city. We have a safety program in order to guarantee the safety to everybody. That should ensure us to start on time and no problem. Cross fingers.”
‘THRILLED TO BE EXPANDING OUR OUTREACH IN EUROPE’
The MEIM program is designed for students with a bachelor’s degree fresh out of undergrad, ages 21-25. In the English-language program, students attend a winter semester in Naples, followed by three weeks in Boston at MIT. At the end of summer, they will have class in Naples until final exams December. With fees, the program will cost an estimated $50,000 altogether.
“We are looking to enhance the entrepreneurial aptitude of students,” Marco Ferretti says, “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.”
One of the degree’s big selling points is that students will get 120 instruction hours with MIT faculty. At a recent event announcing the new program, MIT Sloan Dean David Schmittlein described his school’s interest in the collaboration.
“As a global leader in management education, MIT’s mission is to make high-quality education accessible around the world,” Schmittlein says. “This collaboration is an exciting opportunity for Parthenope’s MEIM students to participate in the educational ecosystem at MIT Sloan. As important, it further strengthens MIT Sloan’s connections with European academic, business, and government communities.”
MIT Sloan Professor Emilio Castilla, faculty director of the collaboration, adds: “We are thrilled to be expanding our outreach in Europe. Like the rest of the world, the EU is in a dynamic time of change, with pressing challenges and emerging opportunities. This collaboration with Parthenope opens doors for deeper understanding and the development of the organization skills needed to successfully manage this change in a way that benefits everyone socially and economically.”
And a final plus: Students joining MEIM will have the opportunity to be selected to attend MIT Sloan’s Master of Science in Management Studies, a customizable degree that complements an MBA or equivalent program from an affiliate school. Those students will receive a master of science degree from MIT in nine months.
See the next page for more details on the MEIM program.
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)
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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