Veronica Scuotto : “My lectures aim to stimulate the students’ knowledge hunger”

Veronica Scuotto is an associate professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Parisian school of business EMLV. She is also a Project Manager at the School of Business and Enterprise at the University of the West of Scotland.

Portrait of a passionate professor who “loves to help people develop a new business idea”.

An innovative teaching approach

My lectures aim to “stimulate hunger” as opposed to “causing indigestion”. My goal is to capture the attention of the students and interest them in the topic.

I concentrate on the core concepts from the topic and present them with multi-media methods. Those include videos, photos, recordings, etc.

These methods usually succeed in making the topic “come alive” and come across as interesting. Aside from making the topic more interesting, the use of audiovisual material also to maximize students’ memories of the lecture.

In fact, it has been demonstrated that the involvement of more than one sense during an event makes the memory of it imprinted more firmly in mind.

I deliver a lecture covering theoretical concepts and frameworks relevant to the case study discussion. The present approach aims to encourage students to reflect on the case study discussion by situating each of its aspects within a specific theoretical framework as well as critically evaluate those frameworks in relation to complex situations.

Such approach is intended to encourage students to move beyond memorizing declarative knowledge and towards consciously applying these concepts to the way they think and function.

Applying student experiences in light of an entrepreneurial perspective

I prefer to apply students’ experiences with theory so as to reflect entrepreneurial situations, like most business situations, are ambiguous in nature; there is no right or wrong answer and, once in a real life context, the student will need to be able to decide what to do and how.

In this respect, students are able to outline the rationale of their choices and make convincing, thoughtful arguments in support of their decisions.

These are two videos illustrating this type of learning activities : Enterprise Creation Module and Lego Workshop.

SMEs, IT: my research interests

I have received a Doctorate, supported through an award, in “Marketing and Enterprise Management” from Milan-Bicocca University, which is rated second best university in Italy.

I am specialized in Small and Medium Enterprises, Information Technologies (e.g. social networking sites, smart cities, and the Internet of Things) and Knowledge Management.

My work has been featured in several peer to peer journals such as the Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Production Planning & Control, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Marketing Review, Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Technology Transfer, and Business Process Management Journal, among others.

Along with Professor Mueller from the University of Waikato, I have also authored a book entitled «ICT Adoption or Knowledge Management: Opportunities for SMEs» published by RossiSmith Ac. Pub., Oxford, UK.

I have also published a book as sole author entitled « Innovazione e Imitazione. Strategie manageriali emergenti, in sistemi aperti di mercato. Un’analisi comparitiva tra imprese in Cina e Medio Oriente », Unilinkpress.

I am an associate editor of the Journal of Knowledge Economy and Governance Journal. I am also an Editorial Board member of JKM and a reviewer of several peer to peer journals. Furthermore, I have received two awards for best Paper of the EuroMed\SIMA track “New Challenges in Open Innovation” in 2016 and the “best commended paper” in 2017 at the annual EuroMed Academy of Business (EMAB) conference.

Nothing is more fulfilling than being part of a team with similar interests and I have been so lucky to work with wonderful people.

On a more personal note, in my spare time, I like Ashtanga yoga and running. I enjoying listening to classical music and jazz. My favourite composer is Tchaikovsky. I am also passionate about opera and ballets, my favourite of them is Giselle. My mantra is « dreaming, believing, and achieving”

Find Veronica Scuotto’s contact info here. Learn more about the Master’s Programme of EMLV, business school in Paris.