Social Entrepreneurship - Trend, Necessity or Future?

Impact Hub Tyrol Co-Founder Alexander Auer as guest lecturer in the course Entrepreneurship

Responsible Management is an integral part of the Business Administration Online degree program. As part of the Entrepreneurship course, the 4th semester students had the opportunity to discuss the field of social entrepreneurship with MCI alumnus and co-founder of the Impact Hub Tyrol, Alexander Auer.

The last MCI webinar in the Entrepreneurship course was devoted by lecturer Dr Christian Klusmann to the field of social entrepreneurship. In order to link theory with practice in the best possible way, he invited Alexander Auer to his course.  The guest lecturer designed his lecture under the central theme "Social Entrepreneurship - Trend, Necessity or Future?”. In addition to theoretical inputs, such as the definition of social entrepreneurship, the students were allowed to create a social business idea based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and other well-known social problems. While the causes and effects of the problems were examined, the selected target group was always at the center of the elaborations.

Based on this, the students received input on various social business models and learned which already known business model patterns are readily used by social businesses. The students had to use these valuable additions to choose the appropriate business model for their previously mentioned business idea. Discussions in the different groups were repeatedly brought up in plenary during these decision-making processes and discussed together. 

The presentation and the MCI webinar were concluded with the guest speaker answering the key question "Social entrepreneurship - trend, necessity or future?: Currently, social entrepreneurship can clearly be described as a trend, as more and more start-ups are being founded as social or green start-ups. In addition, most start-ups promise a greater benefit (purpose statement). There is also a need for social entrepreneurship, as the state cannot solve all (global) problems through tax revenues and regulations alone. Whether social entrepreneurship is the future of entrepreneurship is still difficult to assess, because social entrepreneurship currently forms a niche, which nevertheless has a lot of potential.

More about the guest speaker: Alexander Auer studied Environmental, Process and Energy Engineering at MCI to find out how to solve climate problems with technology. After his bachelor's degree, he wanted to get to know the economic component better and studied Business Administration Online and completed a master's degree in European Energy Economics at the same time. During his studies, Mr. Auer realised that entrepreneurs can decide for themselves how quickly their actions create an impact, regardless of the political progress of sustainability in different countries. This realisation and the desire to create a long-term impact led to the co-founding of the Impact Hub Tyrol. The Impact Hub sees itself as a community in which everyone is welcome who wants to actively think about and shape the future. This can take the form of founding a company, an association or a political initiative. Would you like to learn more about the Impact Hub Tyrol? Then use the link on the right-hand side.