MANAGEMT 7117 - Enterprise Project

The purpose of this course is: 1. To place the cumulative learning from MBA core courses in the context of social enterprise and explore the practical applications and ramifications. 2. To apply the systemic action research approach to a social enterprise field research project. This research project will be planned and undertaken collaboratively and reported on and evaluated individually. It will draw on all the knowledge, insights and capabilities developed in the previous courses of the Adelaide MBA. Each project group will have an academic supervisor who will ensure all the individuals in that group contribute to designing, generating and evaluating a Social Enterprise Acton research project. All projects must be designed to conceive, establish, refine or grow a social enterprise which will operate commercially while addressing a social problem or opportunity. The emphasis will be on systems awareness and identifying enduring, holistic solutions, rather than short-term fixes. Students will be required to investigate, analyse and synthesise complex concepts and theories and to argue propositions, methodologies, conclusions and professional decisions with reference to relevant theory. That is to apply the learning gained from previous courses in the MBA. Students will collaborate with community stakeholders. Well-developed communication, interpersonal and leadership skills will be required. These projects will be designed in recognition that complex global and local challenges - challenges that affect natural, social and economic 'ecologies' - do not readily succumb to the mechanistic, reductionist thinking that has served humankind so well in other contexts. In these complex environments, we must make important decisions in which finance, economics, people and nature are all highly interconnected. Geographic and temporal horizons must be expanded. We must develop the capacity to engage with wholes, not just parts.