Scholars: Jane Wei-Skillern and Roberto Gutiérrez

The Social Enterprise Initiative provides HBS faculty with opportunities to extend their research into new areas related to social enterprise and to collaborate with faculty throughout the University. Jane Wei-Skillern, the first junior faculty member with an appointment in Social Enterprise, is exploring the complexities of multisite organizations.

Social Enterprise also shares knowledge and research with scholars from other top business schools through the distribution of cases, articles, and working papers, as well as through partnerships. One such partnership, the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN), is a collaboration of leading Latin American business schools and HBS in partnership with the AVINA Foundation to address the need for generating social enterprise intellectual capital developed in the region. Roberto Gutiérrez from the Universidad de Los Andes, a SEKN partner, has seen an impact both on his school and on the broader community.

Jane Wei-Skillern

Assistant Professor of Business Administration

When I heard that there was a position open at HBS for an assistant professor in Social Enterprise, it seemed like what I had long envisioned as the perfect job. For nearly a decade, it was my dream to do research and teach in this area.

As an undergraduate business student it was the social aspect of management that really intrigued me, particularly the interaction between the business world and the nonprofit sector. I went on to earn my doctorate in organizational behavior from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford because OB offered a path through which I could study the role of business in society, as well as nonprofit management issues.

Upon graduating from Stanford, I began working with colleagues on a project on nonprofit growth and expansion. As our research progressed, I began to wonder about the long-term growth trajectories of multisite organizations and the accompanying management challenges that leaders of those organizations faced. Once these organizations begin to grow, what are the long-term growth goals? How should a multisite organization be structured under different circumstances, and what are some effective strategies for managing these large, complex organizations? My current research investigates various multisite structures, identifies some of the key strengths and weaknesses, and explores best practices for managing within these organizations.

One of the most demanding aspects of social enterprise research is that there isn't a clear path or methodology to pursue. There are so many unanswered questions that it can be hard to know where to begin. The great thing is that there is no shortage of compelling research opportunities.
In addition to research, the aspect of my job that I love the most is working with students. It is inspiring to work with them both inside and outside the classroom, and to help them determine how they would like to have an impact through social enterprise. Social enterprise is a dynamic, emerging field, and I'm fortunate to be working to develop the field with both faculty and students here at HBS who are driven by their desire to make a difference in the world.

Roberto Gutiérrez

Director, Iniciativa en Emprendimientos Sociales (IESO), Universidad de los Andes

In early 2001, we received an invitation to participate in the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN). HBS professor Jim Austin and Gustavo Herrero, executive director of the HBS Latin America Research Center, came to Universidad de los Andes to assess the commitment of our school to promote the study of social initiatives.

Being part of a network-especially one that involves seven different countries-can be complicated. You have to work with people from different cultures who may not have the same timetable or interests. But our common connection is in the work we do.

The topic for the network's first two-year cycle was collaboration between private-sector and nonprofit organizations. Each partner school wrote four cases around that theme, followed by an analytical paper. Those papers were inputs for a book, Social Partnering in Latin America. For the 2003-2005 cycle, we're focusing on best practices in social initiatives.

It's been great to see the impact of SEKN in the academic community and beyond the walls of the university. One of the organizations we work with, Batuta, has 70 music schools throughout Colombia. Batuta's pedagogical model was well defined, but it needed a fundraising strategy to maintain the quality of its programs. Now we've been asked to help evaluate the impact of the group's educational programs. Our ongoing relationship with Batuta will enable the organization to grow and improve the education it is providing to close to 14,000 students.

In sum, we've been able to attract students to a relatively new field, improve our teaching skills, raise awareness of how social enterprise can create change, and help businesses and NGOs solve problems and increase their effectiveness. It's been satisfying to see the results after just three years and to imagine the network's influence extending even further in the future.