Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship

Teacher(s)

Hermans Julie;

Language

English

Main themes

This course uncovers the popular concepts of social and sustainable entrepreneurship. It applies entrepreneurial thinking to different business models as seen through a social, environmental and economic sustainability perspective. The course will explore the relationship between business development and its social and environmental impacts. You will study ways in which social and sustainable entrepreneurship can significantly respond to social needs such as poverty alleviation and/or diminish dependency on fossil fuels and toxic substances. The course will challenge you to conceive a sustainable entrepreneurial business concept and thereby make you familiar with the issues facing social and sustainable entrepreneurship due to their hybrid nature.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	During their programme, students of the LSM Master's in management and Master's in Business engineering will have developed the following capabilities' CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP Decide and act by incorporating ethical and humanistic values, integrity, respect for the laws and conventions, solidarity and civic action, and sustainable development. Decide and act responsibly,  while taking into account the social, economic and environmental sometimes antinomic, outcomes in the short, medium and long term, for the various stakeholders. INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP ldentify new opportunities, propose creative and useful ideas; insituations that require new strategic approaches, break with existing models and paradigms, promote progress and change. WORK EFFECTIVELY IN AN INTERNATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL ENVIRONMENT Understandtheinnerworkingsofanorganization :developa globalapproachandintegratetheinternailogicused.within the organization. PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Self-motivation : be capable of creating a project in line with their own values and aspirations, confident and motivated in managing the implementation of  the  project, and  persevere in  difficult situations.

Content

This course consists of the following topics:

• Setting the stage

1. Social and sustainable entrepreneurship: What's behind words?
2. Social and sustainable entrepreneurs: profiles and drivers
3. Opportunities: A matter of failures?
4. Organizing for social and sustainable entrepreneurship

• Challenges

1. Acquiring and securing resources
2. Revenue models
3. Stakeholder management and governance
4. Impact measurement
5. Growth and scaling
6. The social business plan
7. Is social/sustainable = ethical?

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

This course rests on a variety of teaching methods:

• Home readings and individual assignments
• On-site lectures and testimonies
• On-site case study sessions
• Group assignment, including fieldwork

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

The evaluation will take the form of:

1. a written team project (30%) and a mid-term oral presentation (10%) thereof based on the topics learned during the course, that will evaluat students' ability to identify social and environmental needs and come up with innovative solutions, and to communicate effectively;
2. a written individual assignment that will evaluate students' understandings of key concepts and their ability to apply them to a real case (30 %);
3. the continuous evaluation of students during in-course interactions, quizz participation and the redaction of reflexive journals about students' practices and learning (30 %).

The re-sit consists of:

• If the evaluation part (1) is failed (group assignments), a revised version of the group project (on the same topic or a new one) is to be submitted and presented in August.  The weights of this part for the final grade remain similar as for the first sit, i.e. respectively 30% (paper) and 10% (presentation) of the final grade.
• If the student’s average for the evaluation parts (2) and (3) is below 10/20: A new written individual assignment taking the form of the exploration and analysis of a real case study, based on the concepts learned during the course and making use of the articles that were part of the readings. The grade obtained for this new assignment will replace the average grade obtained for the evaluation parts (2) and (3) and will thus count for 60% of the final grade.

Bibliography

Reading portfolio provided on Moodle

Faculty or entity

CLSM