In October 2013, the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) was admitted to the Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC) Affiliate Network at Harvard Business School. Four years later, Prof Matthias Kiese and Dr Christian Hundt offer the MOC course developed by leading management professor Michael E. Porter for the sixth time this semester.

Sixteen participants registered for this innovative course offered by the Institute of Geography at RUB, once again representing a diverse mix of no less than eight nationalities and six different programmes. The majority of MOC students represent the M.Sc. programmes in Economics and Economic Policy Consulting this semester, while another RUB participant pursues his PhD in International Development Studies at the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy. However, MOC has also evolved into a showcase of co-operation within the University Alliance Ruhr (UAR), as three participants come from the University of Duisburg-Essen’s master programmes in “Sustainable Urban Technologies” and “Urban Culture, Society and Space”, while one student is from the Technical University of Dortmund’s M.Sc. programme in Spatial Planning.

Needless to say that class discussions once again benefit from the international and interdisciplinary mix of participants. “This diversity of backgrounds and experiences enriches our discussions enormously”, rejoices Prof. Kiese, as the course is built around case studies on the competitiveness of countries, regions and firms, as well as their spatial concentration in so-called clusters.

MOC comprises eleven selected case studies this semester, including classics such as the Japanese fax industry and the Californian wine cluster, but also modern favourites like the Dutch flower cluster or Mayor Bloomberg’s economic development strategy for New York City. Students complete the course with group projects, each group analysing the competitiveness of a cluster of their own choice. When choosing their case studies, the four groups showed remarkable creativity. Further to the biotechnology industry cluster in North Rhine-Westphalia and the logistics cluster in the Ruhr, student research projects focus on the photovoltaic industry cluster in Wuxi, China, and the Finnish forestry cluster.

Additional motivation comes from a World Cup-style contest. The best case study from Bochum will enter a competition with more than 100 universities world-wide, which are part of the MOC network. The winner will be honoured at the annual MOC affiliate workshop in Boston. In 2016, a RUB student team managed to claim the prestigious trophy with a case study on Frankfurt’s financial services cluster. In this year’s bid to defend the title, RUB submitted a student report on the medical device cluster in Tuttlingen, Baden-Württemberg.

While the sixth MOC class at RUB has just started working on their group projects, preparations for the seventh class in the Summer Term of 2018 are already under way. Once again, the course will be offered on a weekly basis every Monday afternoon from 14-17 hours. Until 28 February, 2018, Master-level and PhD students from all programmes are invited to register with matthias.kiese@rub.de. Places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

Further information about MOC can be found here:

http://www.isc.hbs.edu/resources/courses/moc-course-at-harvard/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.geographie.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/arbeitsbereiche/stadt-und-regionaloekonomie/microeconomics-of-competitiveness

http://news.rub.de/studium/2016-12-13-internationaler-wettbewerb-bochumer-sind-weltmeister-der-clusteranalyse

Bochum, 29 November 2017

Prof. Dr. Matthias Kiese

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