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Doctoral Seminar 2022

We invited doctoral students (and interested faculty) to a week-long, intensive social entrepreneurship doctoral seminar at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, 19-23 June 2022. Social entrepreneurship is a vitally important arena of scholarly research and teaching. Doctoral level training is needed to equip researchers in the core concepts and empirical findings of this emerging domain.

The purpose of this intensive social entrepreneurship doctoral seminar was to provide an in-depth survey of recent social entrepreneurship research and its theoretical background and underpinnings. The seminar has been held at different universities in the United States, including Harvard, Syracuse, Indiana University, and the University of Oklahoma. More general information about the seminar is available at https://sedocseminar.org

Why was this seminar important?

Little is known about social entrepreneurship across the African continent which Claeyé (2017 p.427) describes as “terra incognita”. Social entrepreneurship is a new and exciting field of academic study, which is dominated by Western perspectives. Therefore, social entrepreneurship in Southern Africa and the continent at large is still at its infancy. Researchers are working tirelessly to fill the gaps on social entrepreneurship research in this context. This doctoral seminar was particularly significant because it was the first of its kind in South Africa, and it brought together two leading scholars in the field of social entrepreneurship who have amassed a wealth of knowledge in this area over the years. This was therefore an opportunity for doctoral students in social entrepreneurship to learn from some of the great minds in the field.

Seminar content

Preparation and Course Requirements. To teach this intensive reading course effectively in just one week, delegates had to complete the readings ahead of time. Students read the articles proposed by the two leading scholars in the weeks preceding the one-week intensive session, prepared and submitted reading notes. Each session’s notes included brief article summaries and at least two discussion questions from the students. This was done to ensure that the readings were completed ahead of time. The submitted notes and questions were then used to develop discussion questions and other course planning.

Schedule. The meeting schedule of this intensive doctoral seminar was as follows:

Sunday, June 19 – 12:30-17:30 (Session 1)

Monday, June 20 – 8:30-noon (Session 2) and 13:30-17:00 (Session 3)

Tuesday, June 21 – 8:30-noon (Session 4) and 13:30-17:00 (Session 5)

Wednesday, June 22 – 8:30-noon (Session 6) and 13:30-17:00 (Session 7)

Thursday, June 23 – 8:30-13:30 (Session 8)

Facilitators

Tom Lumpkin

Michael F. Price Chair and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Executive Director, Tom Love Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Oklahoma

Sophie Bacq

Associate Professor of Social Entrepreneurship | Institute for Entrepreneurship and Competitive Enterprise Faculty Fellow at Indiana University - Kelley School of Business | Field Editor, Journal of Business Venturing