Degree in Management of Business and Technology La Salle Campus Barcelona

Degree in Management of Business and Technology

Internationality, technology, innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, values, and both people and team management are the keys to define this degree. Includes international stages.

Social entrepreneurship

Description
This course is an introduction to creating social impact through entrepreneurship. Several social and environmental challenges can be resolved using business models, that are often easier to scale up and address the problem in its entire dimension. You will explore the concept of social entrepreneurship through examples and cases. You will then engage in a journey to create a venture that addresses a social problem with a team. You will start by selecting and analysing a social issue and its levers of change to make sure a relevant problem is addressed. Then, you and your team will design one or more business models that could be tested with real potential customers and stakeholders, and review it accordingly. The course will combine the actual work on designing a social venture, with the analysis of practical real-world cases and the learning of a few useful tools that are essential for social entrepreneurs. A final presentation of social ventures will be made to real impact investors.
Type Subject
Optativa
Semester
Second
Credits
5.00
Previous Knowledge
Objectives

On the completion of this course students will develop skills in:
- Understanding the social entrepreneurial concept and process.
- Analysing social problems and identifying levers to solve them.
- Designing impact and business models that are aligned and scalable.
- Applying flexible approaches to business and impact model design.
- Developing an awareness on ways of funding social business models.
- Understand various tools to design, evaluate and scale the impact of social ventures.

Contents

- Introduction to the course. Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship.
- Solving relevant problems: introduction to design thinking and data analysis. Case study: breaking isolation in Barcelona.
- The idea: designing scalable solutions. The case of John: systemic change as a goal.
- Designing possible business models and alignment with impact model. The birth of Kiva: sorting out bottlenecks to scale impact and the organisation.
- Evaluating impact: why, how and when. Practising impact measurement.
- Analysis of social entrepreneurs: presentations.
- Hybrid Value Chains: the case of Housing for all.
- The case of Discovering Hands: taking a service to scale.

Methodology

A. Reading assignments: read text assignments prior to class and be prepared to discuss the text material, work on the cases and answering instructor questions orally with well-organized thoughts and ideas.
B. Class attendance: you are expected to attend each class period, be on time and stay the full class period or be counted absent. You are responsible for all course material missed due to absence.
C. Case studies: we will work around some case studies, reproducing the complexity of real-world projects, and invite you to debate and co-design the best solutions to them. Case studies will invite you to reflect and consolidate learning based on action-oriented challenges combined with essential knowledge and lessons learnt.
D. The main project we will work on throughout the course is making some initial steps in designing a social impact venture, from analysing an issue, to generating ideas, developing its impact and business models, collecting information from potential stakeholders, evaluating impact, and planning scale. Each team of 3-5 students will work on a project and make a final presentation on the last day of the course to real impact investors.
E. Some classes will include instruction from the professor on specific tools that should help students approach the case studies in a structured manner and with rigor. These tools must be used in the design of the main project. All tools will be illustrated through case study and real-world examples.

Evaluation

Your final grade consists of:
1. Class Attendance and Participation (10%)
2. Case studies (25%)
3. Analysis of a social entrepreneur (10%)
4. Final Deliverable (45%)
5. Peer evaluation (10%)

Evaluation Criteria
Basic Bibliography

- Martin, Roger L. and Osberg, Sally R. (2015) Getting Beyond Better, Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN: 978-1-63369-064-4.
- Osterwalder, A and Pigneur, Y (2010) Business Model Generation, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 978-0470- 87641-1.
- Osterwalder, A; Pigneur, Y; Bernarda, G; Smith, A (2014) Value Proposition Design, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 978-1-118-96805-5.
- Bornstein, David and Davis, Susan (2010) Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-019-539634-8

Additional Material