-
Weekly Roundup: Uber, DriveU, Ola and the Greedy Sharing Economy in India
In a typically eventful week in social enterprise, the "social business" buzzword grew more obsolete, and we got a reminder of the many players eager to get their slice of the “sharing economy” - especially in India. Our editors discuss these developments in this roundup.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, Transportation
-
How Your Company Can Become a Social Innovator
The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social innovation defines social innovation as “the application of innovative, practical, sustainable, market-based approaches to benefit society in general, and low-income or under-served populations in particular." Traditionally associated with social entrepreneurs, this tool is increasingly being adopted by business. This is a trend to be welcomed, supported and replicated as companies – big or small, multinational or national – can contribute to taking the practice of social innovation to a significantly larger scale.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
-
Consent as Conversation: Lean research in vulnerable settings
Whether research unfolds in Harvard Square or a remote village, in our home communities or in a context with which we are newly familiar, we hope to question our assumptions on agency, power, risk, and vulnerability. In this post, the authors focus on making informed consent a truly meaningful process, particularly when conducting research in vulnerable settings.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
-
Weekly Roundup: Ending India’s Economic Caste Calcification and Gates Superpowers
The cultural, religious, racial and political implications of India’s complex caste system continue to roil many parts of the country. This week saw protests in Haryana State that killed 19 people people and crippled parts of New Delhi’s water supply. But many voices called for a new economic future, we echo them in the weekly roundup. Plus, why the Gateses took off their capes and encouraged #SuperPowerForGood in their annual letter.
- Categories
- Energy
-
Building a Collaborative Social Impact Measurement Operating System
If social sector organizations truly want to compete against the large corporations, they must build an efficient performance management system where even the small organization can derive value and understand their limitations.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
NexThought Monday – Lean Research: Introducing a Movement for Change
When used as a guiding framework, the principles of lean research have the potential to improve the quality and accuracy of the data gathered by social enterprises and other organizations, increase the usefulness of the data and enable the research process to generate benefits for communities, including improved relationships with local stakeholders and greater access to data for decision-making.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Weekly Roundup: The World’s Cheapest Smartphone – Game Changer or Marketing Stunt?
This week we noticed the eye-grabbing headline: A $7 smartphone is launching in India tomorrow. But soon, the scrutiny began. But by far the biggest question about the phone involves its main selling point: its price. Experts estimate that its components alone would cost over eight times its selling price - not counting production, distribution and marketing expenses. Is the Freedom 251 a marketing stunt or legit game changer?
- Categories
- Technology
-
Young Women Social Entrepreneurs Inspire Optimism in Sierra Leone
The Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship's Global Social Benefit Institute works with passionate social entrepreneurs, whose work ranges from using drones to do last-mile distribution of medicines, to working with high school kids to help them solve problems they see in their communities. Pamela Roussos, senior director at the Miller Center, shares two women-led enterprises from their Sierra Leone workshop that stood out as especially inspiring.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- academia
