Course Description: Ever since Mohammed Yunus -the noted social entrepreneur and the founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh- won the Nobel Peace Price in 2006, social entrepreneurship has garnered the attention of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, state and non-state actors as well as scholars all over the globe. Ending poverty and unemployment, establishing peace, reducing global warming, and improving public education and healthcare are but a few examples of long term goals social entrepreneurs work innovatively to achieve. Social entrepreneurs enjoy vision, leadership skills and capacities, knowledge of social concerns and the capabilities to strategically plan and execute successful projects that are meant to cause long lasting change. Today, the work of Yunus and many others emphasize the enormous synergies and benefits emerging when business principles are unified with social ventures. Enterprises run on business principles for a social cause, and businesses paying attention to social concerns are becoming very vital to achieving sustainable and comprehensive development. This course will serve as an introduction to the field of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises. Through lectures, field visits, analyses of relevant literature, case studies and exercises, this course will explore social entrepreneurship’s potentials, opportunities and limitations.

Course Objectives: The objectives of this course will be accomplished through a variety of assignments designed to cause students to use high-level strategies of case analysis with course content knowledge.  Relevant topics and concepts will be presented to provide students with a learning experience related to real-world settings.  Students are expected to take responsibility for their learning, meet the high expectations set for them, and enjoy new successes they can experience through improved communication skills.

By completing the various instructional topics required in this course, the student will be able to:

  • Have gained an Understand the field of social entrepreneurship and many of the opportunities, challenges, and issues facing social entrepreneurs.

  • Have Analyze and thoroughly research leading social entrepreneurs who are using business skills to address complex social problems.

  • Have Gain the necessary skills that enable them of developing a business plan for a social venture.