The objective of this course is to look into innovation and entrepreneurship independent of its interrelationship with emphasis on how innovation can take place in the area of social development. The course will look into the drivers for innovation, how it can be tested and its life cycle. It will explore how entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship is important for innovation diffusion and how public goods and services can be re-engineered to provide access to the poor in under-served markets. On completion of the course, students should be able to identify and respond to key innovation dilemmas, anticipate and influence diffusion of innovation and evaluate opportunities and choices facing social entrepreneurs as actors of social change.
The course will extensively use case study methods, with emphasis on regional and international success stories, such as Operation Flood and its architect Dr. Verghese Kurien, the microcredit revolution initiated in Bangladesh, the experiment of mobile banking and financial inclusion in Kenya. It will study the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ market structure and investigate how social innovations in these markets can provide sustainable solutions for social enterprises to flourish. It will explore how market failures within the traditional paradigm(s) present opportunities for new business model innovations. Key issues in social entrepreneurship such as, multiple-stakeholder concerns, organizational forms and social mission will be studied and discussed at length.
Learning Outcome
– Develop entrepreneurial insights, how to stimulate innovation and then sustain it
– Understand market opportunities and how to make reasonable risk-reward assessment
– Develop critical thinking and ability to challenge existing paradigms
– Analyze business scenarios and diverse market phenomenon