ENTR 310 - Social Entrepreneurship

2021-2022 Catalog Year

Credit(s): 3
Lecture: 3
Non-Lecture: 0
A nascent field of business development inquiry has emerged on both the national and global stage. Social entrepreneurship (SE) has captured an important zeitgeist of the modern era; that is, the utilization of economic wealth creation, traditionally associated with business entrepreneurship (BE), to foster and create significant and sustainable social benefit or change. Social entrepreneurship is concerned with the utilization of business entrepreneurial skills as a means of creativity responding to societal problems. As traditional boundaries between the public (i.e. government), private (i.e. business) and third sector (i.e. nonprofits) of our society blur it is valuable to understand the challenges and opportunities in this new and growing landscape.

According to Dees (2001), who popularized the term, social entrepreneurship involves: adopting a mission to create and sustain social value; recognizing and relentlessly pursuing new opportunities to serve that mission; engaging in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning; acting boldly without being limited by resources at hand; and exhibiting a heightened sense of accountability for the outcomes created. Within this description, one can identify certain parallels between the aspects of social entrepreneurship and well-established business entrepreneurial concepts wherein each can learn and benefit from this new union of social and economic value, variably termed “blended value” or “social return on investment.” The intent of this course is to introduce students to the complex of dynamics-the “art and science” if you will-underlying Social Entrepreneurship as an emerging national and global phenomenon. The course challenges the student to look beyond the established business objectives- the creation of wealth-and investigate how wealth creation can impact public good. The course will consist of lectures, case discussions and original research conducted by students.

Prerequisite(s): ENTR 200
Class Restriction: Junior, Senior
Offered: When Demand is Sufficient
Graded: N - Normal