National Research University Higher School of Economics
The International College of Economics and Finance
Syllabus for Future of Digital Economy, optional course, 2019-2020
Course coordinator: Egor Krivosheya
Class teachers: Egor Krivosheya, Ekaterina Semerikova
Course Pre-requisites
None. All necessary facts and concepts are given in class. Basic understanding of economic concepts taught in Introduction to Economics courses is a plus. Future of financial services and fintech optional course will also be a plus but is not a formal requirement to take this course.
Course description:
The course develops a practical and theoretical structure for understanding and analyzing key elements of the digital economy and other forms of interaction between traditional and new participants in the economy. The course covers the basic differences of the digital economy from the traditional (existing) economy, a description of the fundamental principles of the functioning of the digital economy and digital transformation processes, develops analytical tools for assessing the potential and successful use of the key elements of the digital economy (cryptoeconomics, creative economy, talent economy, sharing economy, etc.). The course also develops students' understanding of the strategic analysis tools covered in Future of Financial Services and Fintech optional course. The course is intended to provide students with the holistic view on the relevant issues related to the digital economy both in Russia and in the world. In addition, each of the tools is mastered on practical examples and cases from Russian and global practice, which allows students to get acquainted with the latest modern trends related to the digital economy in Russia and the world. This provides the necessary knowledge to evaluate various cases in the field of the digital economy and their impact both on the economic sectors and on wider areas of life (social, ethic and cultural aspects of digitalization).
The course requires a basic understanding of strategic tools and basic economic concepts, but all the necessary knowledge is covered in the course. The completion of the Future of the Financial Services and Fintech, although it is not a formal prerequisite for this course, will be useful for better understanding of strategic methods outside the context of financial services. This course expands the usage of strategic analysis methods, which are studied in detail in Future of the Financial Services and Fintech course. One of the lessons of the course (lecture and seminar) is based on the practical immersion of students in a specific area of the digital economy within the strategic planning session, where they use the strategic analysis tools to understand their roles as the employers, managers, experts, entrepreneurs (or any other positions chosen by students) in Russian or global digital economy. All the remaining classes are built on interactive learning approaches, where the audience is constantly involved in the discussion process. The course is supported by a weekly newsletter and frequent material discussion using online social medial platforms. The course is designed for students of the 1st and subsequent years of study at ICEF BSc programme, as well as ICEF graduate students. The course is based on lectures, seminars, the study of specific cases and independent, as well as group work of students both in the audience and outside it. Course is taught during 1 semester. The course ends with a final exam.
Learning Objectives and Learning Outcomes
The main goals of this course are:
- to develop students' skills to integrate any business process into the context of the digital economy
- to help students master a wide range of knowledge and information on the basics of the digital economy, its ecosystem and its main participants based on practical cases and world experience with refraction to the Russian market.
- to teach students how to approach the strategic analysis tools in any context, especially digitalization and digital transformation. Strategic planning sessions are popular among the management of all levels in order to outline the key directions of their companies or even themselves in the fast-changing world.
- to help students critically analyze the effects of digital transformation and digitalization regardless of the position of their organization or their own positions within the organization/economy.
By the end of the course, students will:
- understand the differences between the digitalization, digital transformation and the principles of the digital economy
- learn to explain and interpret important trends that determine the direction of development of market participants within digital economy
- be able to analyze the effects of changes occurring at both the global or country and industrial levels
- have relevant skills in applying strategic analysis tools regardless of the context
- be able to self-assess the role of their company and their own roles, as the employees, in the modern digital economy
Methods of Instruction
The course uses the following methods and forms of classes:
- interactive lectures (2 hours per week, discussions during the lecture)
- practice sessions (2 hours per week, real business cases and cases from Russian and international digital economy practice are discussed)
- teacher advice
- self-learning
- strategic planning session
Current knowledge control includes: participation in class discussions, work in the classroom to analyze specific situations, group work, final exam at the end of the course. In total the course includes 32 hours of classes delivered on a weekly basis in a form of a lecture followed immediately by the practice session.
Essential Reading and Course Materials:
This syllabus may be accomplished on the basis of reports and academic articles on the digital economy. Business reports are selected from a number of research papers from key consulting and data management firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Accenture, CB Insights, Capgemini), audit agencies (PwC, EY, KPMG, Deloitte), independent think tanks (SKOLKOVO business school, WEForum) and development institutions (World Bank, IMF). The usage of up-to-date authentic materials will help students to obtain the necessary skills in understanding relevant trends in digital economy, form the scenarios of its future development, identifying key challenges and opportunities for incumbents and challenger firms and form the students’ much higher level of social and professional adaptation.
Teaching materials for skills development:
- Atkinson, R. D., McTernan, M., & Reed, A. (2015). Sharing in the Success of the Digital Economy: A Progressive Approach to Radical Innovation. Policy Network.
- Albino, V., Berardi, U., & Dangelico, R. M. (2015). Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance, and initiatives. Journal of Urban Technology, 22(1), 3-21.
- Batsaikhan, U. (2017). Cryptoeconomics–the opportunities and challenges of blockchain (No. 21169).
- Chakravorti B., & Chaturvedi R. S. (2017). Digital Planet: How competitiveness and trust in digital economies vary across the world. The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
- Chinn, M. D., & Fairlie, R. W. (2007). The determinants of the global digital divide: a cross-country analysis of computer and internet penetration. Oxford Economic Papers, 59(1), 16-44.
- Cusumano, M. A. (2015). How traditional firms must compete in the sharing economy. Communications of the ACM, 58(1), 32-34.
- Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
- Grundke, R., Marcolin, L., Nguyen, L. B., Squicciarini, M. (2018). Which skills for the digital era?: Returns to skills analysis, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, No. 2018/09, OECD Publishing.
- Hamari, J., Sjöklint, M., & Ukkonen, A. (2016). The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 67(9), 2047-2059.
- Huws, U. (2014). Labor in the global digital economy: The cybertariat comes of age. NYU Press.
- Jarzabkowski, P., & Kaplan, S. (2015). Strategy tools‐in‐use: A framework for understanding “technologies of rationality” in practice. Strategic Management Journal, 36(4), 537-558.
- Letaifa, S. B. (2015). How to strategize smart cities: Revealing the SMART model. Journal of Business Research, 68(7), 1414-1419.
- Marwick, A. E. (2015). Instafame: Luxury selfies in the attention economy. Public culture, 27(1 (75)), 137-160.
- Romaniuk, J., & Nguyen, C. (2017). Is consumer psychology research ready for today’s attention economy?. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(11-12), 909-916.
- Sahdev, N. K. (2017). The Tokenization of the Economy: ICOs and the Implications for Cryptoeconomics.
- Scholz, T. (2017). Uberworked and underpaid: How workers are disrupting the digital economy. John Wiley & Sons.
- Teece, D. J. (2018). Profiting from innovation in the digital economy: Enabling technologies, standards, and licensing models in the wireless world. Research Policy.
- Zanella, A., Bui, N., Castellani, A., Vangelista, L., & Zorzi, M. (2014). Internet of things for smart cities. IEEE Internet of Things journal, 1(1), 22-32.
- Zanoni, A. B. (2011). Strategic analysis: Processes and tools (Vol. 1). Routledge.
- Zervas, G., Proserpio, D., & Byers, J. W. (2017). The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(5), 687-705.
- Accenture (2017), Digital Transformation Initiative (https://www.accenture.com/us-en/company-event-wef-2017-digital-transformation-initiative)
- Deloitte, What is digital economy? (https://www2.deloitte.com/mt/en/pages/technology/articles/mt-what-is-digital-economy.html)
- McKinsey (2014) Accelerating the digitization of business processes (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/accelerating-the-digitization-of-business-processes)
- McKinsey (2014) Why every leader should care about digitization and disruptive innovation (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/why-every-leader-should-care-about-digitization-and-disruptive-innovation)
- WEF (2018), Innovation with a Purpose: The role of technology innovation in accelerating food systems transformation (https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Innovation_with_a_Purpose_VF-reduced.pdf)
- WEF (2018), Harnessing the fourth industrial revolution for life on land (https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_4IR_Life_on_Land.pdf)
- Атлас новых профессий, Агенство стратегических инициатив и Московская школа управления СКОЛКОВО (https://atlas100.ru)
- Кривошея Е., Семерикова Е., Королев А., Тарусова Е. «Безналичная экономика в России 2030: сценарии для рынка и отрасли». Москва, 2017. Московская школа управления СКОЛКОВО
- Плаксенков Е., Коровкин В., Кривошея Е. «Безналичная экономика в России: тенденции, перспективы, возможности». Москва, 2015. Московская школа управления СКОЛКОВО
- Правительство Российской Федерации (2018). Программа «Цифровая экономика Российской Федерации» (https://government.ru/rugovclassifier/614/events/)
Supplementary reading:
1. Цифровое производство: методы, экосистемы, технологии. Московская школа управления СКОЛКОВО, 2019.
2. Zhuplev, A. «Disruptive Technologies for Business Development and Strategic Advantage». IGI global. Hershey PA, 2018.
3. “Digital Transformation of Industries Demystifying Digital and Securing $100 Trillion for Society and Industry by 2025”, Accenture & WEForum, 2016.
Special Equipment
Computer, projector, USBs, post-it notes (strategic planning session), A1 paper (strategic planning session), whiteboard (strategic planning session), markers (strategic planning session)
Grading System and Examination Type:
This syllabus is designed basing on the belief that testing and teaching are closely interrelated. A test is seen as a natural extension of classroom work providing teacher and student with useful information that can serve as a basis for improvement.
The following system of tests will be used:
Mid of the semester exam – an at home self-paced group task that requires students to analyze the processes related to the digital transformation in one of the industries (the list of industries is provided by the course instructors but students are encouraged to find the sectors/megacompanies themselves) using the strategic analysis tools studied in the course (e.g., CYNEFIN framework, holistic view on innovation, innovation pyramid, transformation canvas, etc). Although it is not a formal requirement, the students can also provide quantitative estimates of the effects of digital transformation within the industry. The task is submitted to the teachers before the end of the course and does not require oral presentation. Students receive detailed written and oral feedback for their work.
End of the semester exam – an achievement/attainment test designed to show mastery of the strategic analysis tools and, especially, the scenario planning and foresighting tools. The exam consists of a number of questions that are built around the real-life practice business case related to the digital economy. Students are allowed to cooperate on the exam. Exam is open book. Exam tests the critical and lateral thinking abilities of the students as well as their abilities to apply the discussed material and facts from the course rather than simply recall what was studied. Students also need to use relevant concepts that cannot be easily found in the Internet to create their strategic development plans for the company. Also, students need to use critical reasoning in order to select among different alternatives proposed within the case. Students are graded according to the rubric that includes the following criteria: MECE structure of the scenarios, the use of relevant concepts, understanding of the case, holistic approach to the solution, well-reasoned justification of the final proposition.
The final grade is composed of the following parts:
In the 1st semester:
Out-of-the-class group assignment – 35%
Final exam – 65%
The formula for the grade for the course is:
Z=0.35*GA+0.65*FE
GA – group assignment mark (out of 100), FE – final exam mark (out of 100).
The passing grade for the course of Future of Digital Economy is 40 out of 100.
All grades are given initially out of 100. The final grades are also transferred to 10- and 5-points grades in accordance with the ICEF Grading Regulations (par. 3).
Retakes are organized in accordance with the HSE Interim and Ongoing Assessment Regulations (incl. Annex 8 for ICEF). Grade determination after retakes is done in accordance with ICEF Grading Regulations (par. 5).
Sample materials for knowledge assessment are available in ICEF Information system and by request.
Course Outline