Terra Nova: A Social Business Trying to Unlock Land Rights for the Urban Poor in Brazil

Julie  Battilana; Ruth  Costas; Marissa  Kimsey; Priscilla  Zogbi

Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2020

Terra Nova: A Social Business Trying to Unlock Land Rights for the Urban Poor in Brazil

by Julie Battilana, Ruth Costas, Marissa Kimsey and Priscilla Zogbi

Abstract

Brothers André and Daniel Albuquerque founded the company Terra Nova in 2001 to mediate land disputes between poor families illegally living in urban areas and the official landowners—with the aspiration to improve the lives of the poor. A business-led approach to the issue, like Terra Nova’s, was innovative and contested amid the widespread belief that land disputes fell solely within the public sector’s purview. After struggling to develop a viable business model, the company received support from impact investing firm MOV Investimentos. By 2019, Terra Nova finally broke even and was exploring opportunities for scaling. But its leaders had to decide the right expansion model for the social business.

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation; Power and Influence; Social Issues; Conflict and Resolution; Business and Government Relations; Infrastructure; Urban Development; Real Estate Industry; Brazil; Latin America;

Language: English

Format: Print

21 pages

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Citation:

Battilana, Julie, Ruth Costas, Marissa Kimsey, and Priscilla Zogbi. "Terra Nova: A Social Business Trying to Unlock Land Rights for the Urban Poor in Brazil." Harvard Business School Case 420-092, January 2020.

Teaching Note for HBS No. 417-051. This Teaching Note provides conceptual foundations and teaching plan recommendations for the case on Vox Capital, a firm that launched one of the first impact investing funds in Brazil. The learning objectives are to understand how an impact investing fund operates (here a venture capital fund seeking both financial and social returns) and to understand how an impact investing firm can organize itself internally to balance its financial and social objectives over time.

Chapter | Handbook of Inclusive Innovation | 2019

Problem, Person, and Pathway: A Framework for Social Innovators

Julie Battilana, Brittany Butler, Marissa Kimsey, Johanna Mair, Christopher Marquis, Christian Seelos, Julie Battilana, Brittany Butler, Marissa Kimsey, Johanna Mair, Christopher Marquis and Christian Seelos

As the appetite for learning about social innovation intensifies, how can we better prepare practitioners for the work of addressing the world’s pressing social problems at the relevant scale? This chapter presents the “3P” framework that we developed to help address this challenge, grounded in our experience researching, teaching, and advising social innovators around the world. In this framework, we propose three key lenses to help social innovators contribute to social change, unpacking the nature of: the problem at hand, the person pursuing change, and the pathway to change. Considering the alignment of these 3Ps provides an organizing template for social innovators to think about how they can effectively contribute to solving social problems. We illustrate how we engage new and experienced social innovators in this learning journey by discussing our pedagogical approach as educators. In conclusion, we discuss future research directions to help address unanswered questions.

Keywords: social innovation; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Change; Problems and Challenges;

Citation:

Battilana, Julie, Brittany Butler, Marissa Kimsey, Johanna Mair, Christopher Marquis, and Christian Seelos. "Problem, Person, and Pathway: A Framework for Social Innovators." In Handbook of Inclusive Innovation: The Role of Organizations, Markets and Communities in Social Innovation, edited by Gerard George, Ted Baker, Paul Tracey, and Havovi Joshi, 61–74. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019. View Details

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Terra Nova: A Social Business Trying to Unlock Land Rights for the Urban Poor in Brazil

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