ASoG and ISEA Launch Joint Masteral Program

The Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) and the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia (ISEA) have agreed to jointly offer a practitioner-oriented masteral program on social entrepreneurship.  This shall take the form of a Social Entrepreneurship track or major under ASoG’s Master in Public Management Program.  

To create a delivery system that is friendly to practitioners, ASoG and ISEA shall be using a modular executive course approach to deliver its social entrepreneurship and integrative courses.  In particular,  3-unit social entrepreneurship courses shall be structured as 4-day executive courses (covering 32 hours), instead of the usual 4-hour class sessions for 8 Saturdays.   This is in keeping with ASoG and ISEA’s efforts to experiment on ways of designing and delivering social entrepreneurship courses that would effectively and efficiently serve the needs of its stakeholders.

Intro to SE Pilot Offering

The offering of the Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship Course originally scheduled to run on Saturdays at 1-5 PM from  September 18 to November 13, 2010, has been postponed to March 2011.  The pilot offering has  been restructured into a 4-day executive course on March 15 to 18, 2011.   

Participants in the course shall have the option to apply for academic credits under the Master in Public Management (MPM) program.  MPM students could take the course as an elective.

Program Description

Master in Public Management Major in Social Entrepreneurship

WHAT IS THE MPM-SE PROGRAM?

The Master in Public Management Major in Social Entrepreneurship (MPM-SE) is a specialized track of the Master in Public Management Program under the Ateneo School of Government. It is a course for professionals who are interested in the pursuit of the public interest through social entrepreneurship.

The course hopes to create a critical mass of social entrepreneurs as well as leaders from government, civil society, the business sector, media and academe, who are effectively advancing and supporting a movement for social entrepreneurship towards sustainable development.

As a specialized track of the Master in Public Management, the program shall develop leaders in and out of the bureaucracy, who appreciate the government’s potential role in creating a policy and political environment conducive to social entrepreneurship. It shall also provide tools and insights on how different players in the social enterprise sector could become either more effective actors for reforms at the policy and program level in the bureaucracy, or more effective advocates and partners outside, actively engaging the bureaucracy at different levels and in various arenas.

The program is being piloted by the Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) in cooperation with the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship Asia (ISEA).

SE as Field of Study

WHAT IS SE AS A FIELD OF STUDY? WHAT WILL THE MPM-SE FOCUS ON?

Broadly speaking, social entrepreneurship deals with “innovations designed to explicitly improve societal well-being, housed within entrepreneurial organizations, which initiate, guide or contribute to change in society” (Perrini, 2006). The concept encompasses a wide range of initiatives: “enterprising individuals devoted to making a difference; social purpose business ventures dedicated to adding for-profit motivations to the non-profit sector; new types of philanthropists supporting venture capital-like investment portfolios; and non-profit organizations that are reinventing themselves by drawing lessons learned from the business world”. (Mair et al,2006).

Globally, social entrepreneurship as an evolving field of study has many streams or schools of thought. The more established are the social innovation school, the social enterprise school (Dees and Anderson, 2006 ) and the social economy school. (Hulgaard, 2008; Defouny and Nyssens, 2008).

A proponent of the social innovation school captures its essence as “creating large scale, lasting, and systemic change through the introduction of new ideas, methodologies, and changes in attitude” (Kramer, 2005). Dees and Anderson (2006) further characterize this school as dealing with innovations that have the potential for major societal impact by addressing the root causes of a social problem, reducing particular social needs, and preventing undesirable outcomes.

On the other hand, the social enterprise school deals with market-based solutions to social problems, aligning economic with social value creation (Dees and Anderson, 2006). They include social purpose business ventures which are hybrid enterprises straddling the boundary between the for-profit business world and social mission-driven public and private nonprofit organizations (Hockerts, 2006) and organizations that trade for a social purpose (Haugh, 2006).

The social economy school links social entrepreneurship to the issue of democracy and participation and locates social enterprises in the intersection of the public, private and civil society sectors. (Hulgaard, 2008). While the first two schools are considered part of the American tradition, the emergence of the social economy school is linked to the EMES Research Network which began in 1996 as a group of scholars cooperating to investigate the social enterprise phenomenon and establish a broad definition that allows for the national differences within the European Union. The EMES definition of social enterprise include associations, cooperatives, mutual organizations and foundations. Defourny and Nyssens (2008) give the following summary definition: “Social enterprises are not-for-profit private organizations providing goods and services directly related to their explicit aim to benefit the community. They rely on a collective dynamics involving various types of stakeholders in their governing bodies, they place a high value on their autonomy and they bear economic risks linked to this activity.”

In Asia, a collaborative research in 2002-2004 involving faculty from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and practitioners from the Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations (CAFO) defined social enterprises as wealth-creating organizations that serve the poor and marginalized sectors as primary stakeholders, adhere to at least a double bottom line (social and financial) and have a distributive enterprise philosophy. This definition of social enterprises is linked to social entrepreneurship as a process of transforming markets and building a plural economy towards the goal of poverty reduction and sustainable development. The practitioners and scholars from this tradition set up the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia in 2008 as a platform for advancing their research, education and advocacy agenda. (Dacanay, 2004; 2009).

While the program would make the students aware of these various schools of thought, it shall focus on teaching the theory and practice of social entrepreneurship that is contextualized and relevant to the pursuit of innovative solutions to poverty and social inequity, and linked to transforming markets and building a plural economy towards sustainable development in the Philippines and Asia. As a specialized track of the Master in Public Management, it shall develop leaders in and out of government, who appreciate how the bureaucracy could be an arena and partner for these innovation and transformation processes.

Target Students

WHO ARE  THE TARGET STUDENTS OF THE MPM-SE? 

The program is specifically designed for

  • Leaders or managers of government agencies, development NGOs or ODA donors wanting to improve the effectiveness of their livelihood and enterprise development programs in serving the poor and marginalized
  • Knowledge leaders, policy and opinion makers in and out of government and the academe, who wish to master social entrepreneurship theory and practice 
  • Professionals who own or manage social-mission driven enterprises and are interested in enhancing their knowledge, skills and attitudes on social enterprise management;
  • Entrepreneurs and business leaders wanting to transform their businesses into social enterprises or develop innovative ways of pursuing corporate social responsibility
  • Graduate students wishing to jumpstart their pursuit of a career in social entrepreneurship

Application Procedures and Requirements

HOW DOES ONE APPLY AND WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS?

Applicants need to meet the minimum requirements for a Master in Public Management degree at the Ateneo School of Government. They should have:

  • A Bachelors degree
  • Good academic record
  • At least two (2) years of work experience

In addition, the applicants should be able to identify themselves in one of the aforementioned categories of target students. To apply, they are required to obtain copies and accomplish the following:

  • Ateneo School of Government (ASoG) Application Form
  • Three (3) Statements of Personal Qualification
  • Essay for MPM-SE Applicants

The forms can be obtained from the Ateneo School of Government website http://www.asg.ateneo.edu/degree_application.php MPM-SE applicants are to accomplish a different set of essay questions from other MPM applicants. The difference is mainly on what they plan to enroll as laboratory (i.e. the enterprise, organization, program or project where they intend to apply their learnings), given the practitioner-orientation of the MPM-SE.

The application procedure and requirements are contained in the aforementioned Ateneo School of Government website. Applicants are asked to send an electronic copy of the application form and the essay submitted to ASoG to: Marie Lisa Dacanay, Lead Faculty, MPM (SE track) at ldacanay@isea-group.net with “MPM-SE Application” as subject. All MPM-SE applicants need to take and pass the entrance examination for Ateneo masteral students, as indicated in the application procedures.

Interested parties are advised to enroll in the Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship Course scheduled on March 15-18, 2011. This is a pre-requisite for all other social entrepreneurship courses under the MPM-SE.

For further inquiries about enrollment to the MPM-SE and the Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship Course, please email the lead faculty at ldacanay@isea-group.net.

Program Design

MPM-SE PROGRAM DESIGN

Students enrolled in the MPM-SE should ideally finish the program in one and a half to two years but are given up to 5 years to complete requirements.

To optimize the learning process, students shall be required to enroll a laboratory where they will introduce/apply innovations based on their learnings and insights from the course. The nature of the laboratory will depend on which of the 5 aforementioned categories the student belongs to.

The student is required to take 4 core courses offered under the Master in Public Management Program, 7 Social Entrepreneurship Courses and 2 Integrative Courses. Each course shall run for 32 hours and is equivalent to 3 units.

The courses will be delivered through a combination of lectures, class and case discussions, field visits, interaction with resource speakers, film showings, individual exercises, group workshops and individual/group coaching sessions.

The CORE MPM COURSES required are: Power, Ethics and Accountability;
Understanding the Bureaucracy, Public Policy Development and Analysis and
Leadership in the Public Sector. The description of these courses may be viewed at http://www.asg.ateneo.edu.

The 7 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MAJOR COURSES are:

  • Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship, Part I: Social Entrepreneurship at the Micro Level
  • Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship, Part II: Macro Perspectives in Social Entrepreneurship
  • Social Enterprise Marketing Management
  • Social Enterprise Operations Management
  • Social Enterprise Human Resource and Organizational Development
  • Social Enterprise Financial Management
  • Strategic Management of Social Enterprises

The INTEGRATIVE COURSES are Summer Internship in a Social Enterprise (required for graduate students wanting to jumpstart their career in SE; optional for other categories);
Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Seminar-Workshop and Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Report.

The MPM core courses are delivered in 4-hour sessions for 8 Saturdays. The MPM Social Entrepreneurship and Integrative courses shall be delivered as 4-day executive courses. Both cover the usual 32 hours of classes required for 3 academic units.

Description of SE Courses

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MAJOR COURSES

Given that the MPM-SE is on its pilot run, the following descriptions of courses are indicative and tentative. They may be revised or enhanced based on an ongoing process of course development being undertaken jointly by ISEA and ASoG faculty teams.

Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship, Part I:
Social Entrepreneurship at the Micro Level

This course explores the meaning of social entrepreneur, social enterprise and the process of social enterprise development. It provides tools and engages the student in applying these tools to discern the similarities and differences between a non-government development organization and a social enterprise; between a traditional business enterprise and a social enterprise; and between a social enterprise and a business practicing corporate social responsibility (Dacanay, 2004, 2009)

The course introduces the life cycle and life forces that come into play in the process of social enterprise development. (Morato, 1994). It also introduces and exposes the students to social enterprise development strategies and models through live and documented cases in different countries in Asia, to allow the students to discern or develop the best strategy or model to utilize in their own contexts (Dacanay, 2004, 2009)

This course may also be taken as an elective by other MPM or masteral students.

Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship, Part II:
Macro Perspectives in Social Entrepreneurship

This course looks at the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship and the various schools of thought that have evolved in its advance in various parts of the world. It focuses on a stream of social entrepreneurship that is relevant to the context of Asia, home to 2/3 of the world’s poorest. The course also introduces sustainable development (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987; Serrano, 2001) a plural economy (Polanyi, 1977; Laville, 2010) and ecological economics (Costanza, 1991; Farley and Daly, 2003) as theoretical frameworks for understanding social entrepreneurship. The critical role of governance and of government policies and institutions in creating and supporting an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship will be emphasized.

The course deals with the market and the economy as arenas for transformation and how this is linked to other processes and arenas of societal change, in the process engaging the students in an exercise of re-imagining how markets and economies serving sustainable development may look like. It explores models, strategies and approaches for scaling up and mainstreaming social entrepreneurship, and the role that different actors and sectors (civil society, government, business) can play in this complex process.

Social Enterprise Marketing Management

The course on social enterprise marketing deals with 2 aspects: marketing of products and services of social enterprises and social marketing.

The course provides the students with tools for understanding and undertaking market segmentation (Roberto, 2002) and developing a marketing strategy with the seven “Ps” as elements: positioning, product (or service), package, place, price, people, promotions and advertising (Morato, 2008). While using the same tools, the course engages the students in a process of appreciating how marketing products and services of social enterprises is similar and different from commercial marketing.

The course also deals with the art of changing the behavior of target groups, which is at the heart of social marketing (Kotler, Roberto and Lee, 2002).

The course provides the students with tools and engages them in applying the tools in their laboratory.

Social Enterprise Operations Management

The course on social enterprise operations management introduces the social enterprise as a transforming unit not only for the delivery of products and services to customers, but also as a transforming unit for improving the quality of life of the poor and marginalized that the social enterprise is committed to serve. On one hand, it deals with meeting the quality, delivery and productivity/price expectations of the buyers of the products and services of the social enterprise (Bernardo and Ferreria, 2002). On the other, it deals with effectively providing the needs of, and managing the social enterprise’s transactional and transformational relationships with its primary stakeholders. The course shall deal with the art of balancing what often times are the contradictory needs of these critical stakeholders. It also introduces tools for analyzing and optimizing the 6 critical “Ms” in operations management: (hu)manpower, machines, materials, money, management, methods (Morato, 2008), towards achieving greater effectiveness and efficiency for the social enterprise.

The course provides the students with tools and engages them in applying the tools in their laboratory.

Social Enterprise Human Resource and Organizational Development

The course augments the core course on leadership, as it sensitizes the student with various management paradigms and introduces the social entrepreneur as a transformational, inspirational and adaptive leader (Morato, 2007)

In terms of OD tools, the course will deal with assessing organizational capabilities and competencies; organizational architecture and culture building; management of change; and management of teams in a social enterprise. For this purpose, government institutions or projects that could play a role in promoting social enterprises shall be part of the subject matter for the course.

The course also deals with the strategic and operational roles of the HR manager in a social enterprise: as culture builder, as strategy implementor, as employee champion and as administrator (Ulrich, 1997). It also deals with human resource processes or the 8 “Rs” of HR: reviewing, rewarding, retooling, recycling, resonating, retaining, recruitment, and routing (Morato, 2008).

Because of their nature, human resource management and organizational development in social enterprises need to simultaneously address the transformational needs of staff and of the primary stakeholders. This is unlike HR and OD in traditional business enterprises where the latter are seen as external to the organization.

The course provides the students with tools and engages them in applying the tools in their laboratory.

Social Enterprise Financial Management

The course shall sensitize the participants with perspectives and tools in managing multiple bottom lines in the functional area of finance. The course shall expound on various revenue models of social enterprises in discussing the sources and uses of funds.

The course shall also cover financial analysis; financial forecasting and budgeting; capital investment analysis, and financial management and control (Morato, 2008)

The course shall show how the vision, mission and objectives of the social enterprise shapes financial policy and practice. It shall also provide various perspectives of what it means to achieve financial viability and sustainability in a social enterprise, and shall introduce the notion that a social enterprise may be deemed successful even if it is just breaking even; and that a social enterprise that is generating a lot of profit may be deemed a failure.

The course provides the students with tools and engages them in applying the tools in their laboratory.

Strategic Management of Social Enterprises

The course shall introduce various schools of thought in strategy and strategy formation, and shall sensitize the students about deliberate and emergent strategies, as well as the four processes of strategy formation: strategic planning, strategic visioning, strategic venturing and strategic learning. (Mintzberg, 2007). The significance of these schools of thought to the promotion and management of social enterprises in the public and private sectors shall be explored.

The course shall emphasize the importance of stakeholder analysis and clarifying stakeholder-based outcomes as key to effective, deliberate strategy formation processes in social enterprises.

A significant part of the course shall deal with the strategic planning process, introduce right to left planning, and emphasize the importance of clarifying outcomes and defining the vision, mission, objectives, key result areas and performance indicators of the social enterprise. It shall introduce tools in external assessment (subsector/ value chain analysis, industry analysis, external stakeholder analysis), the ten levels of organizational assessment and internal stakeholder analysis; financing strategies for social enterprises; strategy formulation; and developing the social enterprise model (Morato, 2006; Dacanay, 2009a). It shall also teach the logical framework approach for program and project planning (EuropeAid, 2004)

Drawing from the tools and insights from the courses in the various functional areas, the course shall likewise deal with issues in social enterprise strategic management.

The course provides the students with tools and engages them in applying the tools in their laboratory.

INTEGRATIVE COURSES

Summer Internship in a Social Enterprise

This course is optional for practitioner-students with an existing laboratory social enterprise, organization, project or program prior to the course, but is required for students who enrolled in the program to jumpstart their career in social entrepreneurship. This shall provide a venue for the student to experience first hand what it means to be part of a management team of a social enterprise or a social enterprise resource institution. Social enterprises and social enterprise resource institutions shall be selected on the basis of their relevance and preparedness to host a student intern in social enterprise management. Both public and private institutions shall be considered as hosts.

Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Seminar-Workshop

This shall be an interactive course where the students are guided and coached to plan and implement their innovations to improve or enhance an aspect of their respective laboratories, using their learnings and insights from the course.

The first sessions shall be conducted at the end of the introductory courses on social entrepreneurship where the students shall go through coaching sessions to finalize their laboratory social enterprise, organization, program or project, which they shall use as base for the application section of succeeding courses in the four functional areas and in strategic management.

Succeeding sessions shall guide the students in planning and implementing their innovations in their respective laboratories.

Social Entrepreneurship Innovation Report

This shall be an individual report to document the innovations introduced by the student in his/her laboratory. It may be a strategic plan for an existing social enterprise or program, a start-up plan and initial results in setting up a social enterprise, documentation of an innovation (in terms of product, program, organization, system, etc) that had a significant impact on the social enterprise laboratory, a policy agenda and/or strategy to promote social entrepreneurship in a school, local government unit, or business etc.

The report should show proof that the student utilized insights and tools learned from the course in an appropriate and significant way.

References

The following contains references that were directly used in describing social entrepreneurship as a field of study and in the initial course descriptions but is not a complete set of references to be used for each course in the MPM-SE program.

Bernardo, Francisco and Ferreria, Alejandrino. The New Analytical Operations Framework. Makati City:  Asian Institute of Management, 2002

Costanza, Robert (Ed), Ecological Economics:  The Science and Management of Sustainability. New York:  Columbia University Press, 1991.

Dacanay, Marie Lisa M. Creating a Space in the Market:  Social Enterprise Stories in Asia. Makati City:  Asian Institute of Management and Conference of Asian Foundations and Organizations, 2004.

Dacanay, Marie Lisa M. “Social Entrepreneurship:  An Asian Perspective”, International Perspectives on Social Entrepreneurship, by Robinson et al (Eds), Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Dacanay, Marie Lisa M. Measuring Social Enterprise. Quezon City:  Institute for Social Entrepreneurship in Asia and Oikocredit International, 2009a.

Daly, Herman and Farley, Joshua,  Ecological Economics:  Principles and Applications, Island Press, 2003

Dees, J. G. & Anderson, B. Framing a Theory of Social Entrepreneurship: Building on Two Schools of Practice and Thought, Research on Social Entrepreneurship: Understanding and Contributing to an Emerging Field: Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), 2006.

Defourny, Jaques & Nyssens, Marthe, Social enterprise in Europe:  recent trends and developments in Social Enterprise Journal, 2008. Vol 4 No 3. 202-228

European Commission, Project Cycle Management Guidelines, 2004. (http://www.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/multimedia/publications/documents/tools/europeaid_adm_pcm_guidelines_2004_en.pdf)

Haugh, Helen, Social Enterprise Beyond Economic Outcomes and Individual Returns in Social Entrepreneurship by Mair et al (Eds), Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 

Hockerts, Kai, Entrepreneurial Opportunity in Social Purpose Business Ventures in Social Entrepreneurship by Mair et al (Eds), Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Hulgaard, Lars, Discourses of Social Entrepreneurship in USA and Europe – variations of the same theme?, Paper presented at the 8th International Conference on ISTR, Barcelona, 9-12 July 2008.

Kramer, Mark. Measuring innovation: evaluation in the field of social entrepreneurship. Boston, MA: Foundation Strategy Group, 2005.

Kotler, Philip, Roberto, Ned and Lee, Nancy. Social Marketing:  Improving the Quality of Life. London:  Sage Publications Inc, 2002.

Korten, David C. Mindful Markets in The Post Corporate World:  Life After Capitalism.  U.S.A.: Kumarian Press and Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1999.

Mair, Johanna, Robinson, Jeffrey and Hockerts, Kai (Eds). Social Entrepreneurship. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan,  2006.

Mair, Johanna and Seelos. Christian.  “Profitable Business Models and Market Creation in the Context of Deep Poverty:  A Strategic View”, Paper presented at the International Workshop on Social Entrepreneurship in Asia co-organized by AIM and CAFO, Makati City, Philippines,  July 6-8, 2006.

Mintzberg, Henry. Tracking Strategies:  Towards a General Theory of Strategy Formation. USA: Oxford University Press, 2007

Morato, Eduardo. Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development:  Text and Cases. Makati City:  Asian Institute of Management, 1994.

Morato, Eduardo. A Trilogy on Entrepreneurship, Book I, II, III. Makati City:  ACE Center for Entrepreneurship and Management Education, 2008.

Morato, Eduardo. Strategic Planning and Management. Singapore:  Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd. 2006

Morato,Eduardo. Self Mastery. Quezon City, 2007.

Perrini, Francesco. Social Entrepreneurship Domain:  Setting Boundaries in The New Social Entrepreneurship:  What Awaits Social Entrepreneurial Ventures? by Perrini, F (Ed) UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2006.

Roberto, Ned.  Strategic Market Segmentation. Quezon City: Life Cycle Press/Salt and Light Ventures, In, 2002

Robinson, Jeffrey, Mair, Johanna and Hockerts, Kai (Eds). Social Entrepreneurship. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Scottish Executive Social Research. Theories and Principles for Sustainable Development in Sustainable Development:  A Review of International Literature, Scotland:  The Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Westminster and the Law School, University of Strathclyde, 2006 (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/123822/0029776.pdf)

Serrano, Isagani. Scenarios of Sustainability, Quezon City:  Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, 2001.

Ulrich, David. A New Mandate for Human Resources in Harvard Buisness Review, 1997World Commission on Environment and Development. Towards Sustainable Development in Our Common Future.  1987.