Courses and Requirements

Please note that the study program might be subject to minor changes. Lessons start at the beginning of September. Attendance is mandatory. The program cannot be attended by distance learning.

First year - a.y. 2026 - 2027 (42° cycle)

Requirements:
In the first year you have to attend 1 Preparatory course in Mathematics (optional) + 9 compulsory courses: 3 methods courses (shared by the two curricula) + 6 curriculum specific courses + research presentation + seminars organized by the Departments of Management & Technology and Marketing

By the beginning of March: students choose elective courses to be attended in the 2nd year

QUARTER	CODE	COURSE TITLE	HOURS	PROFESSOR	CURRICULUM
Sept. - Oct.	40094	Mathematics - Preparatory course	12 or 24	C. Turansick	OPTIONAL
Sept. - Oct.	41081	Microeconomics for Business Research	36	C. Panico	COMPULSORY
Nov. - Dec.	41082	Research Methods in Business and Management I **	36	L. Gagliardi A. Gambardella	COMPULSORY
Feb. - Mar.	41083	Research Methods in Business and Management II **	36	A. Gambardella L. Gagliardi	COMPULSORY
Sept. - Oct.	40321	Organization Theory	24	G. Soda	MANAGEMENT
Sept. - Oct.	41084	Research Methods for Social Sciences	24	R. Ilies	MANAGEMENT
Nov. - Dec.	40015	Strategy	24	G. Di Stefano	MANAGEMENT
Nov. - Dec.	40113	Organizational Behavior	24	G. Brady R. Ilies	MANAGEMENT
Feb. - Mar	41016	Innovation **	24	M. Mariani	MANAGEMENT
Feb. - Mar	41085	Modelling for Business Research	36	A. Fosfuri A. Camuffo	MANAGEMENT
Apr. - May	40048	Entrepreneurship	24	C. Salvato	MANAGEMENT
Sept. - Oct.	40181	Marketing Theory	24	A. Ordanini	MARKETING
Nov. - Dec.	40176	Marketing Modelling **	24	S. Valentini	MARKETING
Nov. - Dec.	40326	Experimental Methods	24	J. Vosgerau	MARKETING
Feb. - Mar.	40065	Marketing Strategy	24	L. Akella	MARKETING
Feb. - Mar.	41063	Empirical Approaches for Marketing Research	24	G. Rubera	MARKETING
Apr. - May	40398	Consumer Behavior I	24	C. Longoni	MARKETING
		Principles of Research Ethics*			SELF-MANAGED ONLINE course
* The course is available at ECR.unibocconi.it (login with Bocconi credentials, using the Student ID as username). Students have to pass the final test and send the certificate to the PhD Program Officer for the registration by the end of the academic year: 31st August 2027
Exam for each compulsory course (maximum 3 retakes). Retakes will take place at the end of the Spring semester, tipically in June
Moreover a Research presentation is required to be drafted under the supervision of the advisor and to be submitted just before the beginning of the 2nd year (early September).

Second year - a.y. 2026 - 2027 (41° cycle)

Requirements:
PhD students may choose how many electives they want to take according to their research interests; the minimum requirement is 4 electives over 2nd and 3rd year.
Moreover, research activity and seminar organized by the Departments of Management & Technology and Marketing.

On top of the exam at the end of each course, at the end of the second year, you should obtain an "Accept" in the second-year research paper.

QUARTER	CODE	COURSE TITLE	HOURS	PROFESSOR	CURRICULUM
Sept. - Oct.	41064	Creativity in Theory Building	24	P. Mannucci	BOTH
Sept. - Oct.	40402	Consumer Behavior II	24	K. Munz	BOTH
Sept. - Oct.	41018	Advances in Organization **	24	M. Espinosa	BOTH
Nov. - Dec.	41074	Advances in Corporate Environmental and Political Strategy	24	N. Dutt	BOTH
Feb. - Mar.	40172	Technology and Innovation Management	24	G. Verona	BOTH
Apr. - May	41037	Data Mining for Marketing Research **	24	K. Zhu	BOTH
Apr. - May	41078	Machine Learning for Casual Inference	24	M. Varga	BOTH
Apr. - May	41073	Topics in Social Network Analysis	24	A. Iorio	BOTH

NEW! Open Science for Researchers: elective online workshop (90 minutes) offered by the Bocconi library, open to all PhD students from 2nd year.

** an updated version of this syllabus will be uploaded soon

ELECTIVE COURSES

Courses of other PhD Programs are allowed subject to PhD program Director's approval.

Third year (40° cycle) / Fourth year (39° cycle) - a.y. 2026 — 2027

NEW! Open Science for Researchers: elective online workshop (75 minutes) offered by the Bocconi library, open to all PhD students from 2nd year.

The third and fourth years are largely devoted to research and the preparation of the thesis. You will have to:

attend the curriculum PhD Seminar in Business Administration & Management
study/research period at other Universities + Ta/RA activities (optional)
attend conferences (as a listener and as a speaker)
attend seminars organized by the Departments of Management &Technology, Marketing
submit 2 research papers (1 per year)
give two seminar presentations per year to illustrate one's own research output (at least one in Bocconi)
submit the thesis to external reviewers (end of 4th year)
defend your thesis

Courses and Requirements

Detailed requirements