In October 2013, the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) was admitted to the Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC) Affiliate Network at Harvard Business School. Five years later, Prof Matthias Kiese offers the MOC course developed by leading management professor Michael E. Porter for the seventh time this semester. Ten participants registered for this innovative course offered by the Institute of Geography at RUB, once again representing a diverse mix of three nationalities and four different programmes. Half of MOC students represent the M.Sc. programme in Economic Policy Consulting this semester, while two come from the M.Sc. programmes in Sport Consulting and Geography, respectively. One further participants represents the M.Sc. programme in Management and Economics. 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. This semester’s edition offers students the special treat of three guest instructors. Former RUB MOC instructors Dr Christian Hundt and Dr Julian Kahl lead the discussion of the Estonia and Finland/Nokia cases, while Prof Edgar Aragón will take charge of the European integration and competitiveness case. A Mexican based in Brussels, Edgar Aragón is a visiting professor for public finance at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt. 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 two groups showed a clear preference for creative industry clusters this year. While one group started its research into the Paris fashion cluster, the other group chose one of North Rhine-Westphalia’s most prominent cluster as a research topic: the media industry in Cologne. 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 is going to submit a student report on the Chinese photovoltaic cluster. While the seventh MOC class at RUB has just started working on their group projects, preparations for the eighth class in the Winter Term of 2018/2019 are already under way. Once again, the course will be offered on a weekly basis every Monday afternoon from 14-17 hours – Monday is MOC day! Until 30 September, 2018, Master-level and PhD students from all programmes across the University Alliance Ruhr (UAR) are invited to register with matthias.kiese@rub.de <mailto:matthias.kiese@rub.de>. Places will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.
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