Social Impact: Entrepreneurs and Social Innovation
Overview
This unit explores the rising importance of social innovation and social enterprise in developing solutions to persistent social and environmental challenges. On a global scale, both social innovation and social enterprise have become prominent in inspiring individuals, organisations and communities to act on social change. There are many components to the social innovation ‘ecosystem’, and students will explore, discuss and critique the different aspects of the ecosystem in this unit. Students will engage in both the practice and theoretical foundations of social innovation and enterprise, participating in engaging on-line and class-based learning activities.
Requisites
01-June-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of trends and drivers re-shaping the dynamics of the social economy
- Critically analyse key issues in the social economy framed by knowledge of multi-stakeholder influences on the creation of social impact
- Apply problem solving methodologies to select appropriate governance, management and value sets in social enterprises
- Critically evaluate concepts such as social entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social investment, social innovation and collaborative governance
- Communicate proficiently in a professional context with a wide variety of audiences and work within groups
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-campus Class | 2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| Online Lecture | 1.00 | 12 weeks | 12 |
| Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out) Independent Learning | 9.50 | 12 weeks | 114 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 | Individual | 40 - 50% | 1,2,4 |
| Assignment 2 | Group | 30 - 50% | 2,3,4,5 |
| Assignment 3 | Individual | 10 - 20% | 2,3,4 |
Content
- The ecosystem view of social innovation.
- Assessing different approaches to social innovation.
- Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise in a global context.
- Policy and supporting impact through social enterprise in Australia.
- The impact of social finance & investment on developing social entrepreneurship.
- Strategic approaches to social innovation and entrepreneurship
- Organisational factors in developing a social enterprise
- Business needs for social enterprise
- Collaboration and collective impact
- Measuring, evaluating and engaging with social impact
- Critiquing social innovation and entrepreneurship for social change
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.