Identifying Social Entrepreneurship Opportunities (Coursera)

Identifying Social Entrepreneurship Opportunities (Coursera)

This Course will clarify the definition and meaning of Social Entrepreneurship and will focus on the need to learn about the source and root of a social problem. You will be introduced to different perspectives about Social Entrepreneurship and you will learn about complementary and opportunistic assets which will help you to detect an opportunity and develop an idea of how to create a business for social change.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

From a practical perspective you will be asked to initiate a team formation process and start to think about a problem topic that you want to address with your social venture in the future. You will work in a team to research this topic and will gradually start to think about a particular opportunity and identify a purpose for your social venture project.
Course 1 of 3 in the Social Entrepreneurship Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Introduction to the Course
Welcome to the first Module of Course 1! In this first Module you will receive an administrative introduction to the general structure of the Specialization and learn how you can manage the courses successfully. Content-wise we will, first, address the definition and meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. Second we will focus on the need to learn about the source and root of a social problem and highlight the importance to deal with this prior to thinking about solutions.

WEEK 2
Definition of Social Entrepreneurship
Welcome to Week 2. The second Module will introduce you to different perspectives about Social Entrepreneurship. You will be asked to initiate your team formation process and select a problem topic that you want to address with your social venture in the future.

WEEK 3
Who is a Social Entrepreneur
With Module 3 you have reached halftime of Course 1. Congratulations! This Module will answer the question what it takes people to become Entrepreneurs. In addition you will be introduced to the concept of a Community Enterprise. Your personal challenge will be to define your future role within your project team and to think about how to find opportunities to address social problems.

WEEK 4
How to Identify an Opportunity
In Module 4 you will be introduced to opportunity identification. You will learn how to recognize complementary and antagonistic assets and turn them into opportunities. You will also be confronted with failures that other ventures experienced in order to prepare yourself for potential challenges for your own establishing your own social venture. By the end of the Module you will be encouraged to start thinking about possible income models.

WEEK 5
Earned Income Creation
Welcome to the last Module of this course! We hope you have enjoyed the course so far and made a progress in becoming a Social Entrepreneur. In this 5th Module we will delve deeper into different financial sturctures for social ventures. Furthermore you will discuss what it means to transfer a concept to a different context by reference to Microfinance. Finally you will be able to design a revenue strategy for your social venture.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

The Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Boards and the Governance Process (Coursera) Coursera
University at Buffalo,The State University of New York

The Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Boards and the Governance Process (Coursera)

The third course in this Specialization introduces you to the factors that influence how effective boards of directors will be in carrying out their roles and responsibilities and hence the impact they have in shaping the success of the organization they govern. While this course has been developed with North American culture in mind, we do appreciate that, in other parts of the world, the nature of the factors that influence the effectiveness of nonprofit boards of directors may vary. Nevertheless,it is our hope that much of the course content will still be of value to those in other parts of the world.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Multistate Taxation (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Multistate Taxation (Coursera)

This course will examine state and local tax laws prevalent in the United States today. The course will consider the historical progression of state and local taxation, the power of states to tax (and the limitations on that power), and planning strategies for minimizing the impact of state and local taxation. Discussions will focus on income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Developing a Google SRE Culture (Coursera) Coursera
Google Cloud

Developing a Google SRE Culture (Coursera)

In many IT organizations, incentives are not aligned between developers, who strive for agility, and operators, who focus on stability. Site reliability engineering, or SRE, is how Google aligns incentives between development and operations and does mission-critical production support. Adoption of SRE cultural and technical practices can help improve collaboration between the business and IT. This course introduces key practices of Google SRE and the important role IT and business leaders play in the success of SRE organizational adoption.

Sep 14th 2026
3 Weeks
Business Models for Innovative Care for Older People (Coursera) Coursera
University of Copenhagen,Copenhagen Business School

Business Models for Innovative Care for Older People (Coursera)

This course will introduce you to healthcare innovation within the field of healthy living and active aging. By following two specific cases on diabetes and rehabilitation, this interdisciplinary course will provide you with key theories, tools and concepts for analyzing and developing viable innovative solutions for aging populations. The lectures will cover demographic, biological, economic, social and cultural aspects of active aging and healthy living, along with lectures on current innovation theories and methods.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Subsistence Marketplaces (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Subsistence Marketplaces (Coursera)

The foundation for this course lies with unique synergies between pioneering research, teaching, and social initiatives through the Subsistence Marketplaces Initiative. Unique to this approach is a bottom-up understanding of the intersection of poverty and the marketplace. The goals of this course are to help you develop an understanding of marketplace activity in the radically different context of subsistence where much of humanity resides and survives, and for you to design solutions that can be implemented by individuals, businesses, and social enterprises through economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable products for subsistence marketplaces.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship Capstone (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Innovation: From Creativity to Entrepreneurship Capstone (Coursera)

The capstone for the specialization will provide a learning experience that integrates across all the courses within it. It will involve analysis of a situation concerning a new enterprise – a venture of one’s own or within a larger organization – to develop the current business model and compare against alternative business models so as to identify potential opportunities and challenges.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Customer-Centric IT Strategy (Coursera) Coursera
University of Virginia

Customer-Centric IT Strategy (Coursera)

Now more than ever, corporations are investing heavily in IT. The quality of these investments affect the daily work of millions, yet it’s not uncommon to see industry surveys where the failure rates for IT projects is over 50%. It’s possible to do better and it’s possible to do so consistently. In this two-week course, we’ll step through major challenges within corporate IT and how to address them with the disciplined use of design thinking, Lean Startup, and agile as a team framework.

Sep 14th 2026
2 Weeks
Infonomics I: Business Information Economics and Data Monetization (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Infonomics I: Business Information Economics and Data Monetization (Coursera)

Thriving in the Information Age compels organizations to deploy information as an actual business asset, not as an IT asset or merely as a business byproduct. This demands creativity in conceiving and implementing new ways to generate economic benefits from the wide array of information assets available to an organization. Unfortunately, information too frequently is underappreciated and therefore underutilized.

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Strategy and Sustainability (Coursera) Coursera
IESE Business School

Strategy and Sustainability (Coursera)

Business and environmental sustainability are not natural bedfellows. Business is about making money. Sustainability is about protecting the planet. Business is measured in months and quarters. Sustainability often requires significant short term costs to secure a sometimes uncertain long-term benefit. To some activists, all executives are exploitative, selfish one percenters. To some executives, all activists are irresponsible, unyielding extremists.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
3D Printing Hardware (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

3D Printing Hardware (Coursera)

This course will provide an in-depth exploration of desktop 3D printing hardware. It will examine the history of desktop 3D printing and demonstrate how 3D printers are made and how they work. This course will also provide step-by-step instructions for how to use and repair a 3D printer. It will also explore the different types of materials that can be 3D printed and will demonstrate how you can create various objects using these tools and materials.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Managing the Company of the Future (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,London Business School

Managing the Company of the Future (Coursera)

The aim of the course is to provide you with a comprehensive framework for understanding both the traditional principles of management inside companies today as well as the alternative principles that are becoming increasingly important. It provides both theoretical and practical perspectives on the nature of management in today’s organisations.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks