Prof Stephan Chambers

This course is compulsory on the Executive MSc in Social Business and Entrepreneurship. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes.

     ​​​​​This course focuses on three critical aspects of social business: entrepreneurship; leadership; and strategy. It focuses on both existing organisations and start-ups as vehicles for social change, and aims to support ‘intrapreneurs’ as well as entrepreneurs.

Its purpose is to bring the worlds of opportunity and social ventures into clear organisational focus.  It begins to sensitise students to the challenges of starting and running mission-based organisations, explores established vehicles for combining social and commercial purpose, and examines strategy development where the imperative is not market-capture but the reversal of market failure.  Students will be introduced to the main elements of entrepreneurial planning including opportunity identification and evaluation, rapid prototyping and resource-gathering.  They will explore the business model canvas and ideas of lean start-up.  They will learn the people skills necessary to sell their ideas and manage organisations. They will consider the main techniques for planning and implementing activities to take advantage of entrepreneurial opportunities, including customer journeys, sources of advantage, competencies, and the resource-based view of the firm. Critiques of over-simplified, heroic or ‘solutionist’ models of social entrepreneurship will be explored.  

There will be ten integrated lecture/seminars of three hours each, delivered across two modules.

Entrepreneurship & Social Entrepreneurship

• Bhide, A. (1996). "The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer." Harvard Business Review, 74(6), 120–130.

• Blank, S. (2013). "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything." Harvard Business Review, 91(5), 63–72.

• Martin, R.L. (2015). Getting Beyond Better: How Social Entrepreneurship Works. Harvard Business Review Press. Chapters 1–2.

Leadership

• Locke, C.C. (2021). Making Your Voice Heard. London: Endeavour. Chapter 3.

• Goleman, D. (2000). "Leadership That Gets Results." Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78–90.

• Ibarra, H. (2015). "The Authenticity Paradox." Harvard Business Review, 93(1/2), 52–59.

Strategy

• Barney, J.B. (1995). "Looking Inside for Competitive Advantage." Academy of Management Executive, 9(4), 49–61.

Essay (80%).

Critical evaluation (20%).

Essay assessment will an individual coursework assignment (80%) comprised of 2 essay questions.

Critical evaluation (20%) will take place in class.