Social Enterprise
Social Enterprise
HBS pioneered the concept of “social enterprise” with the founding of its Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) in 1993. Under the early leadership of James Austin on the importance of collaborative relationships to the success of nonprofits and Allen Grossman and V. Kasturi “Kash” Rangan on new directions in nonprofit strategy, we adopted a problem-focused approach toward understanding the challenges associated with driving sustained, high-impact social change. Current research focuses on leadership of socially mission-driven organizations; the role of business leaders and corporate citizenship in driving social change; business models that address poverty; management of high-performing K-12 public school districts; and financing models for the non-profit sector.
Initiatives & Projects
The Social Enterprise Initiative, Business & Environment Initiative, and Health Care Initiative apply innovative business practices and managerial disciplines to drive sustained, high-impact social change.
Social EnterpriseBusiness & EnvironmentHealth CareRecent Publications
Bridging Trust and Tech: Digitizing Morocco’s Financial System
- August 2025 (Revised August 2025) |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Boards Can Continue to Lead the Way on Climate Governance
- August 18, 2025 |
- Article |
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
A Concise Business Guide to Climate Change: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know
- 2025 |
- Book |
- Faculty Research
Climate has changed the game for businesses around the world. With climate-related disasters costing billions in damages and public pressure rising, over a hundred nations joined the 2015 Paris Agreement, setting 2050 as the target for net-zero carbon emissions. Thousands of companies have registered with the Carbon Disclosure Project. In a recent survey of large, global firms, one-third reported that climate change was already affecting their operations.
Business leaders need help navigating this complex, fast-changing environment. Amid a flood of new policies and information, how can you tell what news matters and what impact it will have? Which arguments and reports are grounded in sound science and economics and which are not?
This indispensable guidebook by Harvard Business School professor and policy expert Gunnar Trumbull answers this need. As managers around the world confront the reality of climate change and educate themselves about how it is affecting their businesses, A Concise Business Guide to Climate Change provides a single, short, and accessible account of the information crucial to understanding and addressing these challenges. What causes climate change? How do countries and companies measure their own impact on global climate? What is the role of carbon markets? How are governments responding? What kind of corporate emissions targets make sense, and how can they be achieved? In crisp, reader-friendly, and data-rich chapters, Trumbull presents the basic scientific, economic, policy, and accounting frameworks that managers need in order to answer these questions.
Effective as an overview or as a reference on specific challenges, this book is your go-to business guide for dealing with climate change.
Toilets for the Underserved: The SURT Commercialization Challenge
- July 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Mother's Home: Eradicating Social Orphancy in Kazakhstan
- July 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Flanner House and Community-Led Development
- July 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Khabar Lahariya
- June 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
How Firms Respond to Worker Activism: Evidence from Global Supply Chains
- 2025 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
Are ESG Improvements Recognized? Perspectives from the Public Sentiments
- Summer 2025 |
- Article |
- Journal of Impact and ESG Investing
IQanat: Empowering Rural Youth in Kazakhstan
- May 2025 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
By 2025, the IQanat school and programs had produced more than 2,000 alumni who had been admitted to universities in 16 countries. The initiative’s funding model had also evolved, shifting from an exclusive reliance on Rakhimbayev’s donations to a donor base of 218 trustees—Kazakhstani business leaders who oversaw IQanat at the regional or district level. Salikova planned to oversee the opening of four new schools across the country over the next 5–10 years, along with expanding access to online programs. IQanat also began partnering with universities to track the long-term outcomes of its graduates, aiming to continually improve programs that supported the career success and well-being of its students. How would the foundation sustain momentum with donors and make the most meaningful difference for generations of rural students in Kazakhstan?