Course Overview

​Course Contents
The course has been designed not only for students at Harvard but as a platform that can be taught at universities throughout the world. The course platform consists of case studies and other written materials plus an extensive library of video content that can be used in class including lectures by Prof. Porter for all sessions and videotapes of case protagonists including heads of state, senior ministers, governors, and others.



Following Harvard’s tradition, the course is based on case studies only. Each session deals with a particular company, region or country case investigating the drivers of competitiveness. As preparation for each session, all students are required to read the respective case of approx. 20 cases. A three-hour session will typically include case discussions in small and large groups, audio-visual inputs featuring Prof Porter and case protagonists, as well as a brief lecture input introducing the key theoretical concept illustrated by the case. As coursework, groups of up to four students prepare a case study analysing the competitiveness of a cluster of their own choice. The best paper will be submitted for a competition with student papers from more than 100 universities world-wide teaching the MOC course.



For further information, see http://www.geographie.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/studium/moc

Course Structure

•        Competitiveness: Overall Framework
•        Competing Across Locations & Global Strategies for Multinational Corporations
•        The Diamond Model of Competitive Advantage
•        Clusters and Cluster Development
•        Institutions for Collaboration
•        Economic Strategy for Countries at Different Levels of Development, Regions and Cities
•        Creating Shared Value (CSV): The Corporate Role in Social and Economic Development
•        Team Project Presentations
•        The Process of Economic Development
•        Putting Porter into Perspective: Criticism and Alternative Perspectives on Competitiveness

Learning Achievement

Competence

Course prerequisites

Email to: matthias.kiese@rub.de and/or simon.rohde@rub.de

Grading Philosophy

essay

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Matthias Kiese, Simon Rohde

Other information

Programme: Course Objectives
Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC) is a graduate course created in a multiyear development effort by Professor Michael E. Porter and the staff and affiliates of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School. The MOC course explores the determinants of competitiveness and successful economic development viewed from a bottom-up, microeconomic perspective. While sound macroeconomic policies, stable legal and political institutions, and improving social conditions create the potential for competitiveness, wealth is actually created at the microeconomic level. The sophistication and productivity of firms, the vitality of clusters, and the quality of the business environment in which competition takes place, are the ultimate determinants of a nation or region's productivity.

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