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The concept of modularity has gained considerable traction in technology studies as a way to conceive, describe, and innovate complex systems, such as product design or organizational structures. In the recent literature, technological modularity has often been intertwined with business model innovation, and scholarship has started investigating how modularity in technology affects changes in business models, both at the cognitive and activity system levels. Yet we still lack a theoretical definition of what modularity is in the business model domain. Business model innovation also encompasses different possibilities of modelling businesses, which are not clearly understood nor classified. We ask when, how, and if modularity theory can be extended to business models in order to enable effective and efficient modelling. We distinguish theoretically between modularity for technology and for business models, and investigate the key processes of modularization and manipulation. We introduce the basic operations of business modelling via modular operators adapted from the technological modularity domain, using iconic examples to develop an analogical reasoning between modularity in technology and in business models. Finally, we discuss opportunities for using modularity theory to foster the understanding of business models and modelling, and develop a challenging research agenda for future investigations.

In this chapter, we reflect on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on an Innovation and Entrepreneurship educational programme by comparing two editions of the Start-up Lab, a three-month hands-on laboratory organised at the University of Trento (Italy), focused on the development of entrepreneurial ideas by international students. The 2019 edition of the course, before the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, was held in attendance, whereas the 2021 edition was held online. For the latter, the authors decided to introduce a self-directed learning approach, assuming it could better support remote teamwork and the acquisition of transversal skills. In this chapter, the authors critically question the effectiveness of remote working and the self-directed learning approach in innovation and entrepreneurship education programmes. The authors provide early evidence about some critical aspects of online and distance learning and teamwork, mostly related to self-efficacy skills, such as the ability to motivate others to work together and collaborative work. Despite the negative effects of distance working on some entrepreneurial skills, the authors demonstrate that the ability to reflect on learning experience is a driver for improving specific entrepreneurial and innovation skills. Students who have had the opportunity to reflect on their learning experiences feel more confident about becoming entrepreneurs or working in companies with a stronger entrepreneurial mindset.

Challenge-based learning (CBL), the experiential learning and pedagogical approach through which learners (students, instructors, companies, stakeholders, communities) are actively involved in designing a sustainable solution for a real-world problem, is gaining momentum in various higher education institutions around the world. Despite this multiplication of learning initiatives, evaluation in CBL is still an overlooked topic both by scholars and practitioners. Moreover, assessment is closely linked to the teaching and learning process and can also influence the evolution of the challenge because it is directly involved in the feedback, teamwork, and relationship between students, instructors, challenge providers, and stakeholders. Explaining why assessment is so important in CBL is one of the objectives of this chapter. Therefore, in line with the spirit of the handbook, the aim of this chapter is also to inspire, and give suggestions and tools for novel ways of assessing the learning process in CBL.

Through a challenge launched by the University of Trento, involving a local nonprofit integrative health fund, we understood the importance to integrate the formative with the summative assessment, to evaluate not only the final results but also the learning process. We experienced the fundamentals and the difficulties of self-directed learning through which students are called to codesign their learning experience, monitor teamwork, and assess their progress. Support and guidance from instructors are required to be successful in this cultural shift through which teachers are no more traditional professors and students are finally the experts in the challenge.

This paper contributes to the debate on the relationship between IT‐artefacts and organisational structuration by describing the dynamics surrounding the collaborative development of an innovative electronic metering system. The aim of the paper is to address a clear gap in the current literature on collaborative IT‐artefacts design, as cooperation at early design stages has barely been analysed. This work tries to understand whether and to what extent the design of an IT‐artefact is driven by the interests of a number of heterogeneous actors and how these are able to affect the artefact's evolution.

The research relies on a case study analysis, which focuses on a consortium of heterogeneous actors (firms, the public sector, research institutes) working within the green energy industry. The research focuses on a workgroup attempting to develop an innovative IT‐artefact: an electronic metering system.

The main results emerging from the field study are: the relevance of each actor's interests as a prevalent rationale for explaining the technical features of the IT‐artefact; the role of negotiation and consensus in determining the final shape of the IT‐artefact in terms of its features; and the bundling/unbundling of IT‐artefact features as a result of changes in the alignment of actors.

The research presents two clear limitations. First, the activities of the workgroup are still ongoing thus limiting some of the insights one may draw from the case study. Second, the analysis is carried out on a single case study. Further analysis should be done to increase consistency and validity of the findings.

Findings indicate that in an open and collaborative environment, the conceptualisation and evolution of an IT‐artefact are influenced more by the political agendas of the various actors rather than by pure technical problems and concerns. The practical implications thus are that every attempt to manage such a collaborative effort must seriously take into consideration these aspects.

Starting from the recognition that little research has been conducted on the factors influencing cooperative IT‐artefact design, this paper sheds new light on how these factors influence such cooperative activity. The authors believe that this kind of work helps lay some foundations for general models attempting to explain cooperative innovation processes such as the open innovation model.

This article on Messedaglia might start with Schumpeter's words: “I have chosen him for mention because of the strategic position he holds in the history of Italian economics and statistics”. In fact the Italian history of economics in the nineteenth century is populated by many authors who were rather famous during their lifetime but less and less appreciated later. Generally speaking it can be said, again with Schumpeter, that “the economic research which was done during this period in the various centres of national life … was not on the same level with the achievements of either the earlier times of Beccaria and Verri or the later times of Pantaleoni and Pareto…. And if it is true that “the political and administrative structure of every nation reflects itself in the organisation of its scientific work” (ibid.) the difficulties faced by Italy, trying first to get rid of foreign domination and, secondly, to build national unity, can explain the trouble Italian economists have had in disentangling themselves from foreign influence and in avoiding divisions into regional schools of thought. Angelo Messedaglia is one of the few able to be original and not provincial, as will be shown later; instead, at this point it would seem useful to give a brief account of the historical situation of Italy in the nineteenth century.