PhD Program in Management of Digital Transformation
Coordinator: Marco Paggi
PhD Program Overview
The digital transition implies profound and highly complex technological, organizational, managerial, and economic changes in all sectors of society, with an important impact on green revolution and environmental sustainability. The ability to govern such changes is essential to take advantage of the opportunities made available by digital innovation by dominating the potential associated risks. The entrepreneurial system, in particular the small and medium-sized enterprises that constitute the beating heart of the Italian economic fabric, may not be ready to grasp the challenges posed by the digital transition as they do not have distinctive multi- and interdisciplinary skills capable of combining set strategic directions with the innovations deriving from the application of digital technologies. Digital transformation also necessarily addresses the psychological and cultural elements of change. Therefore, a correct socio-cultural, behavioral, and psychological approach is necessary to foster change.
The objective of the PhD course in "Management of Digital Transformation" (MDT) is to train a new executive class to respond to the management needs of digital transition processes, drawing inspiration from and responding to the needs outlined in the PNRR to bring businesses and institutions together with universities and research.
The MDT doctoral program pursues this goal by combining a "horizontal" approach to academic activities with a "vertical" approach to research. The PhD Program offers a cross-disciplinary educational offer of a multidisciplinary nature dedicated to digital transition issues addressed from a cultural, economic, social, engineering, IT, legal, managerial, neuroscientific, and psychological perspective. Research activities envision a specific in-depth study on a highly-qualified scientific project aligned with the student's curricular profile and motivations.
In this context, a distinguishing feature of the PhD Program in MDT is the presence of a company: in fact, a preponderant share of scholarships is expected to be co-financed by - and each scholarship related to - a research project developed jointly by an academic advisor, to ensure scientific quality, and by a company representative, to ensure the relevance and industrial transferability, even in the long term, of the research object.
The descriptions of research projects that candidates can choose are listed here.
Input and Output Profiles
In the study on "The Future of the Jobs" presented at the World Economic Forum 2016, it emerged that, in the coming years, technological and demographic factors would profoundly influence the evolution of the labor market. With the advent of enabling technologies for Enterprise 4.0, the skills and abilities sought will change. To date, companies and public institutions are encountering increasing difficulties in identifying, both at the level of graduates and graduates, the skills necessary for the digital transition. Universities cannot adequately train people and guarantee an effective and rapid placement into the job market around these innovative issues. Thus, this PhD Program aims to provide highly sought-after digital skills for the new tasks of the future, that is, that extensive set of technological skills that make it possible to identify, evaluate, use, share, and create content thanks to information technology and the Internet. The PhD Program will also provide in-depth transversal skills both in research and innovation on enabling technologies for Industry 4.0, with particular regard on their exploitation for the green revolution and the environmental sustainability, and corporate lean and personnel management to be in line with the features of intelligent work, i.e., work that integrates manual interventions with solid technical skills of analysis, diagnosis, and scientific reasoning, and the application of complex knowledge.
Career opportunities comprise the academic field in different scientific disciplinary sectors, including engineering, information technology, and economics, as well as technical-scientific and managerial roles in public and private companies. The partnership with leading companies in their respective sectors to develop research projects of high industrial interest will provide an additional advantage to students in terms of employment opportunities.
Scientific Board
Prof. Marco Paggi (Full professor of Structural Mechanics, IMT School)
Prof. Maria Luisa Catoni (Full professor of Ancient Art History and Archaeology, IMT School)
Dr. Luca Cecchetti (Assistant professor of General Psychology, IMT School)
Prof. Gabriele Costa (Associate professor in Computer Security, IMT School)
Prof. Rocco De Nicola (Full professor of Computer Science, IMT School)
Prof. Nicola Lattanzi (Full professor of Business Administration, IMT School)
Dr. Andrea Mola (Assistant professor of Numerical Analysis, IMT School)
Dr. Riccardo Olivito (Assistant professor in Classical Archaeology, IMT School)
Prof. Armando Rungi (Associate professor of Industrial Organization and International Trade, IMT School)