The Significance of Social Enterprise in MBA programs: MBA News

By Tim Dhoul Updated Aug 30, 2019

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Introduction
MBA programs can learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge

social enterprise has grown in significance and interest at business school

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Leading MBA programs have been paying heed to student interest in social enterprise, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, for much of the past decade – increasing their study options into subjects like viral marketing and initiatives in this regard as a result.

Nonprofit management courses available on top schools’ MBA programs doubled between 2003 and 2009, among respondents to a report by The Bridgespan Group. You’d be hard pushed to find a school that wasn’t offering insights into social enterprise and impact investment in some shape or form.

MBA programs can learn from the Ice Bucket Challenge

Exploring techniques from the world of social enterprise, as is evidenced by the Ice Bucket Challenge, can serve as valuable and engaging lessons in viral marketing.

The current phenomenon of the Ice Bucket Challenge, for example, is being held up as a business model illustrating the potential of a hugely successful viral marketing campaign. To date, it has raised more than US$20 million for Lou Gehrig's disease charity, the ALS Association, simply by getting people to have a bucket of ice cold water poured over their heads – more than 10 times what the charity would normally bring in in a comparable timeframe.

Finance professor at Mendoza College of Business, Jeff Bergstrand, told CNBC that this kind of viral marketing technique resonates with the students found on today’s MBA programs not only for its use of internet technology, but because students are “sensitive to the community around them” and keen to factor the concept of ‘giving back’ into their business mindsets.

Business schools may be attuned to this student demand, but are employers? Writing in The Huffington Post, Robert Rubinstein, believes an opportunity to attract graduates of MBA programs with a keen interest in social enterprise, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, may be going begging:

“With all this supply and demand by students, why aren't the recruiters of the leading corporations and financial institutions positioning themselves as impact investing or social enterprise advocates or supporters?” Rubinstein, a former lecturer at Rotterdam School of Management and a chief proponent of the TBLI (Triple Bottom Line Investing) Group, asks.

Discover the options for MBA careers in nonprofit management

Written by

Tim Dhoul

Tim is a writer with a background in consumer journalism and charity communications. He trained as a journalist in the UK and holds degrees in history (BA) and Latin American studies (MA).