ORG522 Social Entrepreneurship

• Topics

  The purpose of this course is to introduce PhD students to key theories and empirical findings on social entrepreneurship. This course explores the social entrepreneurship literature which draws heavily on the entrepreneurship and strategy literatures. The course will start with general definitions and theories of social entrepreneurship. Next, we will examine ways of measuring social entrepreneurship, and look into the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) dataset on social entrepreneurship.

• Learning outcome

  After completion of the course, the students will be able to:

  Knowledge

  • Differentiate key theories and constructs within the field of social entrepreneurship
  • Critically synthesize empirical patterns and findings related to social entrepreneurship

  Skills

  • Evaluate diverse theoretical frameworks to determine their roles as complements or substitutes to traditional entrepreneurship theories
  • Evaluate appropriate strategies for data collection and data analysis in social entrepreneurship
  • Interpret empirical findings through theoretical concepts
  • Identifying implications for theory-building
  • Formulate original, researchable questions that contribute to the advancement of social entrepreneurship as a scholarly domain

  General competencies

  • Evaluate research in social entrepreneurship
  • Effectively communicate complex theoretical and empirical insights to academic and practitioner audiences
  • Apply scholarly insights to inform and shape strategic decision-making in social enterprises.

• Teaching

  Teaching is based on active participation of the students, and combines lectures and a workshop.

• Restricted access

  Access to the course is based on the following principles:

  • PhD candidates at NHH
  • PhD candidates at Norwegian institutions
  • PhD candidates at other institutions
  • PhD candidates from the ENGAGE.EU alliance
  • Motivated master’s students at NHH may be admitted after application, but are subject to the approval from the course responsible on a case by case basis

• Recommended prerequisites

  None

• Required prerequisites

  None

• Compulsory Activity

  None

• Assessment

  Individual course paper (5,000-6,000 words). The course paper should review one area of social entrepreneurship of interest to the student, and would be a reference paper that could be submitted for consideration in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management https://oxfordre.com/businesshttps://oxfordre.com/business (the instructor is a commissioning editor for this volume).The individual course paper must be written in English. The course paper is due three months after the last lecture.

• Grading Scale

  A-F

• Literature

  The literature consists of research articles that will be posted on Leganto in Canvas. These research articles will include:

  Brieger, S.A., Bäro, A., Criaco, G. and Terjesen, S.A., 2021. Entrepreneurs’ age, institutions, and social value creation goals: A multi-country study. Small Business Economics, 57(1), 425-453.

  Farhoud, M., Shah, S., Stenholm, P., Kibler, E., Renko, M. and Terjesen, S., 2021. Social enterprise crowdfunding in an acute crisis. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 15, p.e00211.

  Hechavarría, D.M., Brieger, S.A., Levasseur, L. and Terjesen, S.A., 2023. Cross‐cultural implications of linguistic future time reference and institutional uncertainty on social entrepreneurship. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 17(1), 61-94.

  Lepoutre, J., Justo, R., Terjesen, S. and Bosma, N., 2013. Designing a global standardized methodology for measuring social entrepreneurship activity: The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor social entrepreneurship study. Small Business Economics, 40, 693-714.

  Rawhouser, H., Cummings, M. and Newbert, S.L., 2019. Social impact measurement: Current approaches and future directions for social entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 43(1), 82-115.

  Saebi, T., Foss, N.J. and Linder, S., 2019. Social entrepreneurship research: Past achievements and future promises. Journal of Management, 45(1), 70-95.

  Schwab Foundation. 2025. Collecting data on social enterprises: A playbook for practitioners. May 2025.

  Terjesen, S., Bosma, N. and Stam, E., 2016. Advancing public policy for high‐growth, female, and social entrepreneurs. Public Administration Review, 76(2), 230-239.