There are many definitions of social entrepreneurship, from Greg Dees to Paul Light and others.  Suffice it to say, that social entrepreneurs are people that try to bring society more into balance between the haves and the have-nots, the large and the small, the local and the global. Social entrepreneurship is an approach that can be effective if directed towards affecting a variety of social problems such as alleviating poverty, building self-sufficient energy sources, providing basic healthcare and promoting the common good.  This is why it is important to teach a new generation about social entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship is typically taught in business schools but there is no reason why it cannot be taught in the liberal arts, engineering, public administration program, or other programs.  Liberal arts schools such as Wake Forest in the U.S., public administration programs such as Tata Institute of Social Sciences in India and engineering programs such as Brown University’s have begun to do this.  The business programs yield a grab bag of entrepreneurial approaches and tools and metrics.  The liberal arts programs contribute an emphasis and concern on ethics, psychology, and social justice.  The engineering programs yield approaches to technology, which are appropriate to indigenous conditions and populations.  Public administration programs yield the knowledge and practical steps towards balancing the concerns and power of various constituencies.  The social entrepreneurship field needs to blend and fuse all of these tools and concerns together to create a powerful new approach to teaching a new generation of students to understand the world and become effective agents of change.  Those of us involved in the field of social entrepreneurship believe this effort could, in fact, become one of the important educational trends of this century.

Leadership of the Group is elected annually by the Group membership; questions relative to Group mission, membership; annual work program and objectives should be directed to one of the following members of the leadership team:

Group Chair Debbi D. Brock Berea College CPO 1863 Berea, KY  40404 Telephone: 859-985-3634 Email:  debbi_brock@berea.edu

Group Vice-Chair Mark Pomerantz Seattle University - COB 1233 Olympic Way W Seattle, WZ  98119 Telephone: 206-354-3052 Email:  marklp@comcast.net

A member of USASBE in good standing, that has professional interest in the specific field of the Group and wishes to pursue expansion and promotion of the field and personal advancement through knowledge exchange and participation in the mission of the Group, is eligible for membership.

Click here to view a list of members of this group.

Focus Area	Initiative	Potential Action
Teaching	Provide an outlet for faculty to develop outstanding Pedagogy	Create a SE Pedagogy Award Launch a 3E social entrepreneurial education exercises Encourage cross campus social entrepreneurship education and programs Sharing best practices in the field
Research	Develop more quality research in the field	Current journal accepting SE papers: Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Social Enterprise (UK), Journal of Enterprising Communities Find a sponsor for the best SE  paper award Increase the number and quality of submission for the 2009 conference Encourage international research and study of social entrepreneurship through interaction with other organizations including ICSB, the University Network and the Skoll World Forum among others
Network	Build a network for faculty interested in social entrepreneurship and serve as a liaison with other organizations	Potential partnerships with other organizations Invite other fields to USASBE (nonprofit management, leadership, sociology, etc.) Provide an outlet to synthesize information, resources and communication Continue to help define and redefine the field Increase interaction between social entrepreneurs, faculty and students
Action	Create partnerships with social entrepreneurs to integrate theory and practice	Invite a high profile social entrepreneur to keynote the conference Invite social entrepreneurs to speak or write collaborative papers for the national conference

Information on Social Entrepreneurship
For more information on social entrepreneurship, visit the University Network website www.universitynetwork.org, or download the Social Entrepreneurship Teaching Handbook www.universitynetwork.org/handbook for faculty engaged in teaching and research in social entrepreneurship.  The Social Entrepreneurship Interest Group’s goal is to widen the ‘tent’ of social entrepreneurship and to collaborate with faculty networks including Academy of Management, ICSB and the University Network and practitioner networks and groups such as Ashoka, Social Enterprise Alliance and the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and others to bring everyone together to share resources and best practices in the field.

Accomplishments
The 2008 conference boasted six workshops, five papers and two cases in the social entrepreneurship track including the best practitioner paper "Appalachian by Design: Building an Organization with a Social Mission" by Diane Browning, Barbara Elliott and Debbi Brock and the outstanding workshop award "Social Entrepreneurship: Educating, Integrating & Experiencing" by Heidi Neck, Candida Brush, Patricia Greene, Stephen Schiffman, Denis Ceru from Babson College. The workshop sessions were well attended with twenty-six people participating in a meeting to make social entrepreneurship a special interest group.