MG318      Half Unit
Social Enterprise Design Fundamentals

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

3rd Year BSc Management students only.

The lecture weeks (5 weeks):

During the foundational element, students will be provided with a theoretical overview of this young field, including but not limited to:  

1. Introduction to social enterprise-  definitions / taxonomies of social innovation/business models for social innovation
2. Solving social problems- human centered vs problem centric vs opportunity centric approaches
3. Theory of change
4. Designing social business models & social Innovation
5. Social impact measurement

Throughout the course, examples are given of real social enterprises in order to give practical insight to complement the theory and cases studies where applicable will be utilised.

The Interactive Lecture weeks (5 weeks):

During the interactive lecture weeks, students will often be provided with a short lecture followed by interactive exercises that help them to develop the initial stages of a social enterprise. Students will then develop a draft business model and conduct some minimum viable product testing to check the validity of their recommendations. An advantage of the course for students will be an opportunity to discover lean and human centered design principles as an approach to problem solving that spans many social disciplines and is being used by social scientists, creative designers and world class entrepreneurs

Ethical limitations:

Students will be encouraged to engage in developing solutions to problems without complex ethical considerations, as there is insufficient time for the students to get approval for these projects from the Ethics Committee before the term concludes. More specifically students will be steered away from working with:

1. Minors
2. Vulnerable populations such as refugees / homeless without a third party (the logic is that an established third party can provide the structure for students to approach these populations in a safe way)
3. Any domestic violence related initiative
4. Other such initiatives that would mean that the team cannot self-certify its project

Further students will be advised of LSE’s ethical standards to ensure that they comply with them fully in the execution of their projects.

1 hours of help sessions and 20 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

Student groups will be expected to produce an interim group presentation to illustrate their progress. Additionally, students will have the option to submit one essay during the Winter Term for grading. The essay question will be provided by the course leader.

• Dees, J.G. (1998a), The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship, Stanford University: Center for Social Innovation, Graduate School of Business, Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Ewin Marion Kauffman Foundation, available at https://centers.fuqua.duke.edu/case/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/03/Article_Dees_MeaningofSocialEntrepreneurship_2001.pdf 
• Zahra, S. A., Gedajlovic, E., Neubaum, D. O., & Shulman, J. M. (2009). A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(5), 519–532. 
• Battilana, J., & Lee, M. (2014). Advancing Research on Hybrid Organizing - Insights from the Study of Social Enterprises. Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 397–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2014.893615 
• Yunus, M., Moingeon, B., & Lehmann-Ortega, L. (2010). Building social business models: Lessons from the Grameen experience. Long Range Planning, 43(2–3), 308–325 
• Giacomin Joseph (2014) What is Human Centred Design? The Design Journal. Vol 17(4) pp 606-623 

Presentation (50%)

This component of assessment includes an element of group work.

Essay (50%, 1400 words)

For detailed assessment information, including all deadlines and timings, please see the relevant course Moodle page. Assessment timings will be available at the start of each term.