How you enter social enterprise matters
In many aspects of life where we come from influences where we go next. This also applies to social entrepreneurs: how they transition into social enterprise can play a big role. This blog explores how different starting points matter for … Continued
Social intrapreneurship – doing good from the inside out
An interview with Asrif Yusoff, the head of business venture management at a leading energy company and a part-time student at the Cambridge Judge Business School, on leading social innovation within a corporation. You hold an MBA from Imperial College, … Continued
Rap about Cambridge Social Ventures Weekend
More than 700 social entrepreneurs have come to one of our Social Venture Weekends since 2014… but this is the first time anyone’s been inspired to rap about us! On a sunny weekend this summer, 50 budding social entrepreneurs joined … Continued
The impact of law on social innovation efforts
This blog explains how law becomes part of a myriad of endeavours aimed at empowering local communities.
Social entrepreneurship after the Arab Spring
In 2011, hopes of a “new Egypt” inspired mass protests in Cairo which led to the resignation of President Mubarak. Seven years later, the regime change did not bring the social change people hoped for. Egypt is facing a number … Continued
Social innovation sparks creativity
Creativity, or ‘the production of novel and useful ideas in any domain’[1] is widely recognised as a source of competitive advantage when delivered as innovation in business. Many businesses try to encourage lateral thinking, in the knowledge that exposure to … Continued
Sustaining social and business objectives simultaneously
To achieve social and business objectives, leaders need to build guardrails and adopt paradoxical frames, argue Wendy Smith and Marya Besharov in this blog based on their research on a leading social enterprise. As our world cries out for repair, … Continued
Entrepreneurship for development
This blog explores an interesting, yet contentious example of an organisation promoting an entrepreneurship-initiative for rural development. It highlights the difficulties of introducing a set of Western market-practices into a non-Western context – namely Tanzania. Economic development in rural Tanzania … Continued
Reclaiming symbols and spaces: social innovation made in (Southern) Italy
Students of social innovation[1] know only too well the power of symbols and stories. Those who look for innovative solutions to complex, wicked social problems face, first, the challenge of conceptualising and clearly explaining to others the very social evil … Continued
Owning the future of work
A lot is written about the millennial generation in the press. Maybe that they are narcissists and buy too much avocado on toast, or that they have the attention span of a goldfish and are addicted to social media. Invariably … Continued