About This Course
Social enterprises emerge as a peculiar form of business organisation. Their singularities notably lie within their two-folded ambition to conduct sustainable activities while creating positive social and/or environmental impact. In this course, you will learn how they concretely differ from traditional businesses and open up to alternative economic models by understanding their specific challenges and how to tackle them.
While the model is not new, much attention has been given lately and many aspects remain to be understood. In this regard, over a thousand social entrepreneurs (in 7 EU countries, China and Russia) were interviewed in the framework of a EU-funded research project, SEFORÏS. SEFORÏS, which stands for “Social Entrepreneurship as a Force for more Inclusive and Innovative Societies”, is an international research project on social enterprises, which sets out to explore the role of social entrepreneurs in reforming European societies, and societies outside Europe. SEFORÏS aims to better understand the role that social enterprises play in the EU and beyond in the development of and evolution towards inclusive and innovative societies.
Based on this state-of-the-art field-based study and existing literature, the SEFORIS: current status of social entrepreneurship course will strengthen your comprehension of these organisations. This MOOC will cover dimensions such as the behavioural and societal change they create, financial and governance models they adopt and scaling strategies to grow social impact. Besides, this course will unveil unique and rich research outcomes that will help you grasp the significance of social enterprises’ actions.
Join us if you want to gain more in-depth knowledge about social entrepreneurship and engage with its community of enthusiasts (e.g. social entrepreneurs, social impact investors, social business incubators, policy makers etc.).
Course Staff
Marieke Huysentruyt
Marieke Huysentruyt is an Assistant Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics (SITE) and Faculty Fellow at HEC Paris (Social Business Chair). She holds a M.Sc. in Bio-engineering from Catholic University of Leuven, a M.Sc. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell, and a Ph.D. in Economics from London School of Economics (LSE). Prior to joining the Stockholm School of Economics, she was a Lecturer at LSE, teaching on the Master of Public Administration Program.
Marieke Huysentruyt’s research interests lie at the intersection of behavioral economics, organizational economics and development. Professor Huysentruyt’s current work can be grouped into two broad areas: First, she explores the effects of personal values, organizational culture and management practices on organizational outcomes, drawing on both experimental and large-scale panel data. Second, she collaborates with a wide-ranging set of companies, social enterprises and public administrations in Europe to test (at an unusually large scale) and evaluate the effects of behaviorally inspired new products and services that are designed to address specific needs of poor households in developed and emerging market economies.
Ute Stephan
Ute Stephan is Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurship at Aston Business School, Director of the Aston Centre for Research into International Entrepreneurship and Business (ACRIEB), Editor-in-Chief of Applied Psychology, and a principle investigator of the SEFORIS project on social enterprise. Her research explores how culture and institutions influence entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, as well as entrepreneurial motivation, well-being and leadership.
Chloé Le Coq
Chloé Le Coq is Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics and Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE). She holds a PhD from Stockholm School of Economics and has held visiting positions at University of Purdue, the University of California Energy Institute at Berkeley, and National Singapore University.
Her research areas are industrial organization and behavioral economics. She works on topics related to energy markets, anti-trust policy, and consumer financial behavior. Her recent work includes theoretical and experimental studies of anti-trust policy, auctions and forward trading.
Davis Plotnieks
Davis Plotnieks is as a Lecturer of Business Management at the BA School of Business and Finance and Research Analyst in the SEFORïS project at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE). He has obtained over 10 years of experience in marketing, project management and organization management working in private, public and non-profit sectors in several countries. He is Ph.D. candidate in Economics at the University of Latvia. He is also a co-founder and board member of a social enterprise TEDxRiga.
His main research interests cover innovation, financing mechanisms for new business development and social entrepreneurship, in particular social finance and crowdfunding. His latest research focuses on financing modes and models of social entrepreneurship.
Alexandra Ioan
Alexandra Ioan has graduated from the Master of Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance in 2014 and is currently pursuing the PhD in Governance at the Hertie School. Her academic background is in Communication Studies and Public Management and her professional experience relies on the work conducted with several Romanian and international NGOs and foundations in areas mostly related to community development, non-formal and intercultural education. Among others, she has worked with organisations such as the New Horizons Foundation, the CODECS Foundation for Leadership, the Expedition Inside Culture Association, the Hertie Foundation and Ashoka Germany. As a result of her activity within civil society, she is particularly interested in the development and impact of third sector organisations, as well as intersectoral collaboration in solving social issues.
Alain Daou
Alain Daou is a research associate at KU Leuven. He holds a PhD in management from Laval University in Quebec, Canada. Alain's research interests include social entrepreneurship, SME development, intellectual capital, project management, NGO management, and international development. His professional work experience includes consultancy and management of non-profit organizations in Africa, Latin America, North America and the Middle East.
