Best Business Schools For Social Entrepreneurship

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Over the last decade an increasing number of entrepreneurs are interested in initiating entrepreneurial projects that aim to bring social change. This special type of entrepreneurs are called social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs try to address social and environmental problems in the world, and with their effort, they not only manage to motivate key players, but influence as well people´s mindsets, generating a huge impact on the social landscape. On the other hand social entrepreneurs embody a different type of leadership, more interested in dialogue and collaboration.

The major difference between entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs is that while a business entrepreneur aims to design new industries, a social entrepreneur develops innovative solutions to tackle social problems and then implements them on a large scale, which leads to social innovation. Social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities missed by others, to improve systems. Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate “social value” rather than profits.

As more young people dedicate themselves to social enterprise, business schools are also getting into the act. As an example, Harvard Business School mentioned that it has about 90 faculty members–more than most schools have faculty–engaged in social enterprise research, teaching and programs. On the other hand, Berkeley’s Haas School established a partnership with McKinsey & Co. so that McKinsey consultants act as supervisors to student teams who do pro-bono work for local non-profits.

What are considered to be the best businesses schools in terms of social entrepreneurship ?

Source: IntelligentHQ (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Education
Tags
business development, social enterprise