Social entrepreneurship is attracting a large and growing interest at the Academy, reflecting its increasing popularity. A number of PDW and Symposia were organized on the topic, and most of them were fully booked including “Social Entrepreneurship and Broader Theories: Shedding New Light on the Bigger Picture” organized by Susan Mueller.
Johanna Mair, a well known researcher in this area, presented a framework (in the picture below), with 3 main elements: theory, methods and phenomenon. Her colleague Lisa Hehenberger presented their research on Venture Philanthropy.
The session “Entrepreneurship in the Social Context: Is it Really Different?” was remarkable, and it included talks on “How Social Entrepreneurs Define Success”, cross-national variation in social entrepreneurship, how social is different from commercial entrepreneurship (double bottom line: social + commercial). Zev Lowe (ESADE Business School) presented “Design-Driven Social Ventures: An Alternative to the Community-Led Approach” with two fascinating cases: KIVA and Worldreader.
Sabrina Bresciani, Ph.D. 