Welcome

Hello and welcome to this MOOC on the commercialization of social entreprises. My name is Marek Hudon. I’m a professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles where I teach social entrepreneurship, sustainable finance and business ethics.

The fact that social entreprises turn to more market-led techniques, funding or governance is not new but you may wonder what we know about the impact of this commercialization process! Is commercialization a good or bad thing? I will introduce you to the scientific literature on this issue. I have been working on this specific issue since 2010 and I think it is both important and fascinating! I will make sure we have enough time and tools to interact! Once we understand the potential positive and negative impacts of commercialization, we will need to join forces to think about the ways to avoid mission drift and maximize social impact! We will also have the opportunity to share our experiences and ideas.

This course is suitable for both beginners and experts with field experience. It is designed to support the professional developments of practitioners who want to take a step back on their practices and who want to inform themselves on the latest development in the research field. If you have been active in a social enterprise, I encourage you to share your successes and failures in managing the double bottom line of social and financial performances! This course is also designed for students looking for an overview of the functioning and challenges faced by social enterprises. If you are totally new to this topic, don’t worry, you will not be the only one.

Moreover, your input will also be valued as I’m also looking forward to hearing some outside-the-box thinking.

By balancing theory and practical applications, the main objectives of the MOOC are: - To understand the impact of the commercialization of social enterprises, with a focus on microfinance - To come up together with the best practices on how to avoid mission drift of social enterprises

Even if we are going to spend a few weeks together, it is impossible to cover everything that is related to commercialization! It is such a vast and complex phenomenon. Nevertheless, I think that at the end of the MOOC, you will be able to identify core concepts in the commercialization of social enterprises. You will also be able to summarize and to interpret what empirical evidence has to say about it. You will also be able to identify the current challenges faced by social enterprises when commercializing and map out strategies on how to avoid mission drift. On a more global perspective, this MOOC will also provide you with tools to critically reflect on the transformation process of social enterprises.

My mother tongue is French, I am not a native speaker! I guess you have already heard it! If you are not a French-speaker such as the majority of the participants, you may thus need some time to get used to my accent. The good news is that all videos are subtitled and you will always have the transcripts of the videos to help you understand the content. You can thus read them and listen at the same time. This course will take a total of five weeks. Each week will contain videos and texts and also activities to help you learn in a different way!

After months of preparation, I am truly excited to start sharing with you what I have learnt on the commercialization or marketization of social enterprises. I am even more looking forward to discussing with you what can be done to make sure that their social impact keeps prevailing in the future! Voilà, we are about to start our journey on the commercialization of social enterprises. Fasten your seat belt and don’t forget to bring your compass!