Publications

04 Aug 2014
News

Harvard’s New Social Enterprise Director

Keywords: Social Enterprise Initiative; Educational Services

June 2019
Supplement

KaBOOM!: Play at Scale (B)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

This (B) case describes the changes in the organization’s strategy from one of Building Playgrounds to Influencing Play. It describes the implementation of the strategy and the challenges it faced internally and externally. It goes on to describe how the organization... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Social Enterprise; Scaling Social Impact; Nonprofit Organizations; Nonprofit Scaling; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation; United States

November 2024
Background Note

Social Enterprise in the MENA Region

By: Brian Trelstad and Ahmed Dahawy

This research note provides an overview of the socio-economic landscape of social enterprise in the Middle East and North Africa. It highlights the diversity of players in the region including social enterprise organizations (in their many forms) and supporting... View Details

September 2016 (Revised February 2019)
Case

KaBOOM!: Play at Scale (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sarah Appleby

A case on scaling social impact for nonprofits. Founded in 1995, KaBOOM! quickly became a nationally recognized nonprofit in building playgrounds with strong corporate partnerships and volunteer-organizing capabilities. Over the years, KaBOOM! developed new programs,... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Social Impact; Scaling; Nonprofit Scaling; Nonprofit Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; United States

01 Jun 2004
News

Social Enterprise Celebrates Tenth Year, Looks Ahead

seven social-enterprise electives in 2003Ã2004. In its first ten years, the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) developed executive education programs attended by over 2,500 nonprofit leaders, published... View Details

Keywords: SEI; Social Enterprise Initiative; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

Article

Advancing Research on Hybrid Organizing—Insights from the Study of Social Enterprises

By: Julie Battilana and Matthew Lee

Hybrid organizations that combine multiple organizational forms deviate from socially legitimate templates for organizing and thus experience unique organizing challenges. In this paper, we introduce and develop the concept of hybrid organizing, which we define as the... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Organizations; Social Enterprise; Organizational Structure; Social Entrepreneurship

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2019
Article

Reflections on 25 Years of Building Social Enterprise Education

By: James E. Austin and V. Kasturi Rangan

Purpose—This paper aims to reflect on 25 years of the Social Enterprise Initiative at the Harvard Business School, examining the processes and thinking involved at key stages of this pioneering Initiative’s implementation and... View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise Initiative; Harvard Business School; Social Enterprise; Education; Programs

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Article

How Social Entrepreneurs Zig-Zag Their Way to Impact at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Tricia Gregg

This article provides guidance to social entrepreneurs and their funders as they seek to advance the enterprise from startup to scale. It focuses on the evolution of four social entrepreneurs and their decision-making paths as they attempt to scale their respective... View Details

Keywords: Systemic Impact; Scaling; Strategy Process; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy

December 2015
Article

Harnessing Productive Tensions in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Work Integration Social Enterprises

By: Julie Battilana, Metin Sengul, Anne-Claire Pache and Jacob Model

We examine the factors that influence the social performance of hybrid organizations that pursue a social mission, and sustain their operations through commercial activities, by studying work integration social enterprises (WISEs). We argue that social imprinting and... View Details

Keywords: Hybrid Organizations; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Organizations; Performance Productivity

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19 Apr 2018
Video

Social Enterprise Webinar

30 Jul 2014
News

Five Bad Reasons to Start a For-Profit Social Enterprise

Keywords: business model; venture philanthropy; social enterprise

Teaching Interest

Managing Social Enterprise (MSE)

This course examines how to create, develop and scale high-performing social enterprises - be they nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid organizations. Unlike the business world where most stakeholders agree on the definition of success and are driven by market forces,... View Details

23 Jun 2015
Video

Social Enterprise Club

February 2017 (Revised September 2017)
Case

Akshaya Patra: Impact at Scale

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Sarah Appleby

Akshaya Patra, an Indian NGO, had set an ambitious goal of serving 5 million free meals daily to India's schoolchildren. Founded in 2000, Akshaya Patra had thus far opened 25 high-capacity kitchens in 10 different States to provide a midday meal to nearly 1.65 million... View Details

Keywords: Scaling; Public-private Partnership; Operational Excellence; Nonprofit Scaling; Social Impact; Social Enterprise; Growth and Development Strategy; Business and Government Relations; Performance Effectiveness; Nonprofit Organizations; India

28 Mar 2004
Research & Ideas

HBS Celebrates Social Enterprise Initiative

When Harvard Business School launched its Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) in 1993-1994, few academic institutions were conducting serious research and teaching about how to create View Details

Keywords: by Manda Salls

2008
Working Paper

The Future of Social Enterprise

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Herman B. Leonard and Susan McDonald

The Future of Social Enterprise considers the confluence of forces that is shaping the field of social enterprise, changing the way that funders, practitioners, scholars, and organizations measure performance. We trace a growing pool of potential funding sources to... View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Investment; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Performance Effectiveness; Social Enterprise; Consolidation; Value

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14 Sep 2023
Blog Post

MBAs Accelerate Their Social Enterprise Ventures

The Social Enterprise Accelerator is offered to students in the summer between their first and second year, supporting student founders in the development of their social... View Details

29 Jul 2020
Video

Industry Spotlight Series: Social Enterprise

June 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Driving Scale with Otto

By: Rebecca Karp, David Allen and Annelena Lobb

This case asks how startup founders make scaling decisions in light of their priorities for their business and for themselves. Otto was a technology company that applied artificial intelligence technology to sales. It deployed natural language processing to find sales... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Natural Language Processing; B2B; B2B Innovation; Scaling; Scaling Tech Ventures; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Finance; Sales; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; United States; Cambridge; New York (city, NY); Spain