History of Entrepreneurship
A.Y. 2025/2026
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
With reference to Mark Casson's work, the course will focus on the theory and history of entrepreneurship according to : it will include the evolution of the entrepreneur in history, his economic role and all the functions associated with it, his culture, and his role in society. We will then outline the essential elements of the history of women entrepreneurship in Italy after 1861. We will also focus on forms of entrepreneurship in the pre-industrial age, characterized by very high elements of risk and uncertainty, in a long-term perspective. We will analyze the figure of the entrepreneur-merchant-banker, the protagonist of urban economic and cultural life. We will explore the constitutive factors of merchants-entrepreneurs' culture and knowledge, and investigate the system of their education and training, starting with the teaching of accounting practice and systems of measurement. We will examine some case studies from a specific manufacturing sector, that of printed books, with particular attention to the mercantile side of entrepreneurial activity. We will examine the available tools to develop control over the enterprise and knowledge of the markets, with particular attention to correspondence, which was the main tool for governing and developing commercial and social networks. We will analyze the concept of invention, the development of the legal protection of the invention, and the impact of innovation on society.
Prerequisites for admission
None
Teaching methods
Lectures, supplemented by online multimedia resources and expert contributions. Students are encouraged to independently develop certain topics and present and discuss them with the class during lesson hours.
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 della 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 della 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 communications 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.
M-STO/08 - ARCHIVAL SCIENCE, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND LIBRARIANSHIP - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Nuovo Angela Maria
Professor(s)