Social Entrepreneurship

Course goals

Learning objectives
At the end of the course, the student:

• Has knowledge of theoretical perspectives that are related to social entrepreneurship and on different types of social entrepreneurship
• Understands, and is able to discuss, the role social entrepreneurship plays in tackling local and global societal challenges
• Is able to apply the accumulated knowledge to local societal challenges by collaborating in multidisciplinary teams
• Has learned to design, validate and test entrepreneurial solutions to societal challenges
• Is able to critically reflect on her/his individual contribution, the group work and present results and implications in an accessible way to stakeholders

Content

In this course, we explore what it takes to be an effective change maker. Social entrepreneurship encompasses the recognition and pursuit of business opportunities with the explicit aim to tackle societal challenges or enhance social wealth. This can be done by creating new ventures or by developing initiatives in existing organizations in an innovative manner.

Where governments and traditional organisations tend to look at problems from the outside, social entrepreneurs come to understand them from within. Given the complexities that accompany societal problems, the course combines perspectives from economics and management, with insights from development studies, law, governance and sociology to study the emerging phenomenon of social entrepreneurship.

This is an interactive, experiential, project-based course where students will learn about models of social entrepreneurship, what it takes to create a conducive environment for social entrepreneurs, as well as the tensions that come along when aiming for social and financial goals at the same time. Students will also learn by designing and validating entrepreneurial solutions to an existing local challenge in a group project. The challenge is either identified by students themselves or presented by a social entrepreneur or an actor in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The course builds on partnerships in the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative at Utrecht University.

Effort requirements
Students are expected to be present and well prepared at meetings and have to hand in all individual and group assignments on time through Brightspace. This is an intensive course, which requires the average student about 20 hours of work per week for individual assignments and group work including contact moments. It is not advised to follow this course if one wants to complete more than two courses in one period.


In case online access is required for this course and you are not in the position to buy the access code, you are advised to contact the course coordinator for an alternative solution. Please note that access codes are not reusable meaning that codes from second hand books do not work, as well as access codes from books with a different ISBN. Separate or spare codes are usually not available.