Social Entrepreneurship

Note: The course "Social Entrepreneurship" will NOT take place in the summer semester 2022 due to a research sabbatical of Prof. Lea Cassar.

Bachelor, Study Phase 2
Summer Term
Lecture and Tutorial
Teaching/ Working Language: English

Aware that English is probably not the native language of the participants, possible language barriers are benevolently / indulgently taken into account. I look forward to welcoming many students who wish to take up this challenge.

Outline

Social change is no longer a domain reserved to public and charitable organizations. An increasing number of firms and businesses are taking up the challenge of solving the world’s most pressing social problems. This course will cover a selected set of topics associated with social innovation and social entrepreneurship whether nonprofit or for-profit, such as:

some general background information to understand the recent rise of social enterprises;
develop and test a start-up idea;
plan a social enterprise;
launch and scale a social enterprise;
psychological biases as an obstacle to social change;
impact evaluation methods;
non-monetary incentives and HRM in social enterprises

The course is meant to be highly interactive. Students will be provided with many case studies that will be discussed together in class. In the tutorials, they will be asked to work in groups and develop an idea for a social enterprise. Several practitioners will be invited to give a talk and share their experiences.

Objectives

This course is meant to prepare the students in facing some of the initial challenges associated with the creation of a social enterprise. Through the course, the students will learn how to address important applied questions, such as “What social problem I want to target and what plausible solutions can I offer?”, “How can I plan, launch and scale my social enterprise?”, “What types of incentives will be useful to motivate employees in social enterprises?”, “How to evaluate the social impact of my enterprise?” and so on. Through the course, the students will also get an exposure to a network of social entrepreneurs in the area. They will learn how to run impact evaluations, develop and channel their creativity, and pitch their ideas.