MBA-SEE courses

BUSI 8500: Introductions to Social Innovation, Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship (3 credit-hours)

This course will help students develop an understanding of the wide range of definitions and possibilities surrounding what constitutes social innovation, social enterprise, and social entrepreneurship, including how these concepts reinforce one another. Students will examine the spectrum of models, including non-profit and for-profit, that exist within the social enterprise sector. The course will also explore how social enterprises emerge including the role of the start-up community and other players within the social enterprise ecosystem.

BUSI 8501: The Rise of Sustainable Capitalism (3 credit-hours)

This overview course aims to set the context for the entire program, by examining how global trends, including the rise of complex social and environmental issues, have propelled a rise in social enterprises and entrepreneurship. Students will explore how a variety of sectors, including the business, non-profit and government sectors have responded to these trends, and how social enterprises have been complementing such approaches. These topics will be explored through Canadian and international examples.

BUSI 8502: Organizational Behaviour for Social Enterprises (2 credit-hours)

This course aims to create a working understanding of the individual, group and organizational dynamics within social enterprises. It emphasizes a blending of theoretical understanding and applied analytical skills. Topics relating to organizational effectiveness include: individual behaviors and workplace attitudes, motivation, power and influence, group processes, culture, and managing change.

BUSI 8503: Managing Social Enterprises: Marketing (2 credit-hours)

Marketing plays a crucial role in the success of any social enterprise. It helps to establish and manage the relationships among people, ideas and technologies that constitute markets and mobilize resources to address social and environmental needs. This course provides conceptual and practical understanding of marketing in terms of vision, strategy, tactics and tools. It explores topic areas including customer insights, product and service design, branding, sales, channels of distribution, and communication media and strategies.

BUSI 8504: Managing Social Enterprises: Accounting (3 credit-hours)

This course focuses on the role of the accounting function and external financial reporting for a social enterprise. The course will also focus on the various costing systems in the social enterprise sector, the different types of cost behaviour and their uses for decision making and planning via cost-volume-profit analysis. It further considers relevant costing in relation to pricing decisions, budgeting, variance analysis, and responsibility centre accounting.

BUSI 8505: Managing Social Enterprises: Human Resources (2 credit-hours)

This course aims to improve general management competency in the effective use of human resources within the social enterprise context. It emphasizes an applied orientation and content includes topics such as recruitment; selection; training; compensation; and performance management.

BUSI 8506: Managing Social Enterprises: Information Systems (3 credit-hours)

This course provides examines the fundamental concepts of information systems and how they support management and operations in the social enterprise environment. The course will also explore issues in managing data and adapting to technological change.

BUSI 8507: Managing Social Enterprises: Finance (3 credit-hours)

This course is designed to study the role of financial management in the operation of modern social enterprises. Topics include capital budgeting, capital markets, raising capital, financial institutions, the timing of financial policy, reorganization of a business, and multinational business finance.

BUSI 8508: Managing Social Enterprises: Operations Management (3 credit-hours)

This course introduces fundamental concepts and techniques in making core operational decisions, and how to apply them to the social enterprise domain. Topics covered include operations strategies, forecasting, inventory, quality, process, sourcing, risk pooling, and supply chain management.

BUSI 8509: Leadership within Social Enterprises (2 credit-hours)

The course will focus on leadership competencies needed for effectiveness in social enterprises. Students will be encouraged to reflect on and develop these personal leadership competencies based on current theoretical frameworks of leadership. The application of skill
development both within the classroom setting and beyond will be encouraged through experiential learning and applied assignments.

BUSI 8510: Economics and Public Policy (2 credit-hours)

This course provides some important insights regarding the economic and social interactions of individuals, the production and consumption of goods and the transfer of wealth to produce and obtain these goods. It will provide a better understanding why people and governments behave in a particular way. This course will then focus on the current public policies and policy framework within the sector in order to gain an understanding as to how they have evolved in the past, how public policy gets shaped, and what are the emerging challenges for social enterprises.

BUSI 8511: Strategic Planning for a Social Venture (2 credit-hours)

This course will provide the necessary tools for strategic business planning for a social venture, beginning with identifying opportunities for business development. It will explore entrepreneurial mindset that it key to identifying opportunities, innovation and new value creation, as well as understanding the challenges entrepreneurs face in effecting change in their environments; appreciate the interaction of forces that foster entrepreneurial action; and appreciate the personal competencies. The course will focus on social venture planning, strategic business planning, social and ethical capital, strategic management and planning; conceptualizing strategic management; operationalization strategic management and planning; and assessing strategic management performance.

BUSI 8512: Funding Social Ventures (2 credit-hours)

This course will provide students with insights on the financial dimensions of social ventures: establishing capital needs, including crowdsourcing for innovation and crowdfunding for finances; understanding the intentions of investors; evaluating risk, return and impact; loan and equity finance; impact investment funds; public-private partnerships; and incubators.

BUSI 8513: Project Management (1 credit-hour)

This course is intended to acquaint students with generally recognized good practices in project management, with a focus on the social enterprise context. This course is designed to familiarize students with issues related to project management and to introduce them possible approaches and techniques that can be used to alleviate or eliminate those issues. This course provides students with an understanding of principles, frameworks and techniques of project management and how to apply them in diverse and complex settings.

BUSI 8514: Legal and Regulatory Issues (1 credit-hour)

The course will explore legal and regulatory issues for social enterprises, at the provincial, territorial and federal levels as well as in certain international countries related to the Third Sector. For example, the course will examine current acts and regulations adopted by the
federal and provincial governments relevant to social enterprises, how policy development is done within governments, and introduce complexities relating to issues like incorporation and taxation.

BUSI 8515: Governing Social Enterprises (1 credit-hour)

This course focuses on the governance challenges and support needs of social enterprises, an element of growing important in light for the current period of rapid growth of the Third and Fourth Sectors. This course will examine the governance of non-profit organizations,
cooperatives and for-profit social businesses, discuss challenges and best practices within Canada and beyond.

BUSI 8516: Social Impact Measurement (1 credit-hour)

Social enterprises aim to support communities and environments, and thus having the ability to measure the social impact of these enterprises is crucial. This course will explore what success looks like, the availability of data sources, social impact theory, and the use of existing tools, like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Impact Reporting and Investment Standards (IRIS), to measure whether success has been achieved.

BUSI 8517: Internship (0 credit-hours)

Students will be required to complete a semester internship as part of their program. The nature of the internship and the specific details of the projects will be need to be approved by the program director or a designated faculty member.

BUSI 8518: Reflections (0 credit-hour)

Students will be required to journal about the program, the learning outcomes and their experience in their internship. Throughout the program, students will be asked to submit some of their reflections to faculty or share their reflections with their peers. Students will be required to submit their reflections in the form of a major paper at the end of their internship period.