MG4G2      Half Unit
Social Innovation Design

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

This course builds on – and complements – the AT course MG4G1 ‘Understanding Social Problems,’ and introduces the building blocks that inform the launch, resourcing and scaling of a social enterprise. Through this course you are introduced to the concepts, frameworks, methods, tools and evidence social entrepreneurs use to operationalise, deliver and scaletheir social entrepreneurial idea. 

Through interactive lectures, cases, guest speakers, group discussion and rigorous analysis you will identify and then critique the organisational and strategic approaches that apply (or have been applied) to social and environmental problems.  

At the heart of this course is the opportunity to apply your learnings in different contexts, with field work conducted in Nairobi or Cape Town. Here you will work alongside local entrepreneurs to understand their barriers to growth and co-create strategies to overcome them.   

Student teams will present their final recommendations to apanel of academic and practitioner experts, applying the analytical tool developed through the term. 

15 hours of seminars and 15 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.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the WT.

• Amoako, I. O. (2019). Trust, Institutions and Managing Entrepreneurial Relationships in Africa. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98395-0 
• Coviello, N., Autio, E., Nambisan, S., Patzelt, H., & Thomas, L. D. W. (2024). Organizational scaling, scalability, and scale-up: Definitional harmonization and a research agenda. Journal of Business Venturing, 39(5), 106419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106419 
• Nyssens, M. & Wanderley, Fernanda & Gaiger, Luiz. (2019). Social Enterprise in Latin America: Theory, Models and Practice. 10.4324/9780429055164.
• Smith, W. K., Gonin, M., & Besharov, M. L. (2013). Managing Social-Business Tensions. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(3), 407–442. https://doi.org/10.5840/beq201323327 

Essay (40%)

Learning Log / reflective learning report (20%)

Project (40%)

There will be an observed, in person element as part of the course assessment. 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.