Faculty
Kai Hockerts, Associate Professor

Course Coordinator
Kai Hockerts, Associate Professor

Basic knowledge of business policy and strategic management are advantageous.

The domain of social change is no longer reserved to students of political sciences and development studies. Increasingly business students are recognized as possessing important skills that can drive social change. This new discipline is often referred to as Social Entrepreneurship (S-ENT). S-ENT describes the discovery and sustainable exploitation of opportunities to create public goods. This is usually done through the generation of disequilibria in market and non-market environments. The S-ENT process can in some cases lead to the creation of social enterprises. These social ventures are hybrid organizations exhibiting characteristics of both the for-profit and not-for profit sector. People engaging in S-ENT are usually referred to as social entrepreneurs, a term that describes resourceful individuals working to create social innovation. They do not only have to identify (or create) opportunities for social change (that so far have been unexploited), they must also muster the resources necessary to turn these opportunities into reality. A typical example is Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank (Bangladesh) and recipient of the Nobel Peace price in recognition of his contribution to poverty alleviation through the invention and popularization of Microfinance. Other examples include fair trade or car-sharing. Today many foundations aim to identify and promote social entrepreneurs. Two prominent examples are Ashoka and the Skoll Foundation. So called venture philanthropists adopt methods from the domain of venture capital, for example, encouraging social entrepreneurs to provide detailed business plans and to measure and report systematically on their social performance. Social Return on Investment (S-ROI) analysis is an example, for an emerging tool aiming to describe the social impact of S-ENT in dollar terms, relative to the philanthropic investment made.

Participants in this course will learn what role management students can play in the initiation of social change. In particular they will become skilled at how to identify opportunities for social change and how to develop plans for their exploitation. They will also acquire the basic skills needed for launching and growing social enterprises.

At the end of the course students should be able to:

The course concludes with a 15 pages individual project exam/home assignment.
As a prerequisite for the exam case assignments have to be handed in and need to be presented and discussed in the case sessions.

What past students have to say about the class: “I would recommend this course to anyone remotely interested in creating social benefit and even those interested in economics, innovation and business models. Since taking the course I have built a non-commercial volunteer website (SEEK Volunteer) and now I am beginning work for a social enterprise unit running a second hand online bookstore and cafe whose profits are used to build better services for Australia's poor.” (took the class in 2007)

“This lively class gives a great overview of the field of social entrepreneurship. The class project reveals which strategies are successful for businesses in the field. This was a great course and I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning how to use business ventures to address social issues. ” Benjamin Rose, North Carolina (took the class in 2008)