Center for Social Innovation

Innovative Ideas For Sustainable Farming And Economic Growth

Mountain Hazelnuts of Bhutan has set its sights on a triple bottom line: financial gain for investors, alleviating poverty among farm families, and restoration of an eroded, hilly landscape.

Resource: News Article

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Jared Cohen: Harnessing Online Technology For Revolution And Democracy

Online technology challenges citizens to build better societies, not just revolt against bad ones, Google Ideas leader Jared Cohen says.

Resource: News Article

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Global Issues, Mobile Technology, Social Innovations, Economic Development

Mobile Banking Takes Off in Nigeria

A 2005 Stanford MBA says that mobile technology devices are revolutionizing banking and other services in Africa, similar to the way computers revolutionized industrialized countries.

Resource: News Article

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Economic Development, Leadership

The Challenge of Building a Manufacturing Presence in Liberia

Building a fair-trade manufacturing business in Liberia is helping entrepreneur Chid Liberty realize a goal. "You can make money and do good at the same time," he told a Stanford University audience.

Resource: News Article

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USRio+2.0: Mobile Communication Technology May Provide Solutions To Long-Standing World Problems

Officials from developing countries, the U.S. State Department, and the United Nations met on campus with tech-savvy entrepreneurs to discuss how fast-spreading connection technologies can foster sustainable economic growth, improve public health, support agriculture, and protect the natural environment in many countries.

Resource: News Article

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Innovative Ideas For Sustainable Farming And Economic Growth

Mountain Hazelnuts of Bhutan has set its sights on a triple bottom line: financial gain for investors, alleviating poverty among farm families, and restoration of an eroded, hilly landscape.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Jared Cohen: Harnessing Online Technology For Revolution And Democracy

Online technology challenges citizens to build better societies, not just revolt against bad ones, Google Ideas leader Jared Cohen says.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Global Issues, Mobile Technology, Social Innovations, Economic Development

Mobile Banking Takes Off in Nigeria

A 2005 Stanford MBA says that mobile technology devices are revolutionizing banking and other services in Africa, similar to the way computers revolutionized industrialized countries.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development, Leadership

The Challenge of Building a Manufacturing Presence in Liberia

Building a fair-trade manufacturing business in Liberia is helping entrepreneur Chid Liberty realize a goal. "You can make money and do good at the same time," he told a Stanford University audience.

Resource: News Article

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Economic Development, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Effective Funding

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Spring 2009

How foundations can best support social innovators. —By Steven Lawry

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Government

Romanticizing the Poor

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2009

Market solutions to poverty, which include services and products targeting consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid,” portray poor people as creative entrepreneurs and discerning consumers. Yet this rosy view of poverty-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful. —By Aneel Karnani

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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In the Black with BRAC

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2009

Serving more than 110 million people per year, BRAC is the largest nonprofit in the world. Yet it doesn’t receive the most charitable donations. Instead, BRAC’s social enterprises generate 80 percent of the organization’s annual budget. These revenues have allowed the organization to develop, test, and replicate some of the world’s most innovative antipoverty programs. —By Kim Jonker

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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What’s Next: Beyond Microfinance

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2009

Two new players in the world’s social investing scene seek financial returns along with social impact.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Economic Development, Environment, Government

What’s Next: Food or Fuel?

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Winter 2009

Mathematical tool helps countries weigh the pros and cons of using biofuel.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

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Economic Development, Nonprofit Management

Nonprofit Accounting Rules Not the Solution to For-Profit Accountability

Nonprofit accounting rules should not be forced on anyone.

Resource: Blog Post

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Arts, Culture, and Religion, Economic Development

Reviewing the Past, Predicting the Future

The author takes a crystal ball to the 2009 economic landscape.

Resource: Blog Post

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Kiva Introduces Lending Team Feature

Kiva, the world’s first person-to-person microlending Web site, has facilitated nearly $40 million in loans to entrepreneurs worldwide.

Resource: Blog Post

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Chinese Activity in Africa, Part 2: The Path of Least Resistance

Africa is finding Chinese investment less demanding than that of the West.

Resource: Blog Post

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Chinese Activity in Africa, Part 2: The Path of Least Resistance

To what degree will Chinese investments in Africa add long-term value?

Resource: Blog Post

Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

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Philanthropy & Responsible Investing, Economic Development

Patient Capital in International Development

Neither markets nor philanthropy alone are sufficient to help the world's poorest people. In this audio interview with host Sheela Sethuraman, Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund, describes how a combination of patient capital plus management support is making a difference in tackling poverty in Africa and Asia. Novogratz shares experiences and anecdotes from her recently published book, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing, Social Entrepreneurship

Hybrid and For-Profit Business Models - Challenges and Opportunities

How do you use for-profit activities to fund your social entrepreneurship mission? In this panel discussion at the Skoll World Forum, experts talk about how to combine for- and nonprofit activities for greatest effect. They show that business and nonprofit can mix, drawing on examples such as efforts to profitably provide water to poor villagers by training street children to run businesses, and franchising medical care to creating a transparent market place for handmade goods.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Education

Corporate Citizenship Supporting Education

[photo - Photo: Mohammed Abbad Andaloussi]

Can change the world by engaging in corporate citizenship one hour a week? Al Jisr, and its founder Mohammed Abbad Andaloussi, are convinced that we can. In this audio interview, host Sheela Sethuraman interviews Analoussi about his efforts to improve education in Moroccan schools by involving businesses. So far, more than 100 corporations have "adopted" some 200 schools, providing volunteers, support, and a real world perspective to students.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Economic Development, Education, Government

Mexico Economic Challenges and Opportunities

Most Americans are unaware of the enormous progress Mexico has enjoyed since the peso's devastating collapse in 1994. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox highlights his country's opportunities to foster democracy, develop entrepreneurism, and promote alternative energy sources as it emerges as a world economic power. He addresses challenges, including a poor educational system, rapid population growth, and dwindling oil reserves. This audio lecture is sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation.

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Resource: Audio

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Lifting Latin America Out of Poverty

Latin America may be poised to become a much bigger player on the world economic stage, yet 54 percent of its citizens would choose an autocratic regime over a democratically elected government if it meant more jobs. Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo reflects on the challenge of democratic development and consolidation in Latin America in this audio interview sponsored by the Stanford School of Education and moderated by Stanford sociology and political science professor, Larry Diamond.

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Resource: Audio

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Bill Gates Says Foreign Aid is Threatened, but Big Ideas Can Turn the Tide

Just off a plane from Africa, Bill Gates visits Stanford to talk about innovation, but not the software kind. Scientists and engineers, he said, need to focus on products that help improve the lives of the world's poor even though the market directs people to help the wealthiest.

Resource: Video

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Innovative Design Saves Tiny Lives

Jane Chen, MBA '08, has a vision of a place “babies no longer die from being cold, where people no longer die from preventable causes. And where every person has the ability to choose [his or her] own fate.”

Resource: Video

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Optimism for Developing Countries

"There is, perhaps for the first time in history, a reasonable chance of transforming the quality of life and the creative opportunities for the vast majority of humanity."

Resource: Video

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Enhancing Business Education for Rural Entrepreneurs

In 2006, Stanford's Graduate School of Business students Scott Raymond and Katherine Boas took a service learning trip to Thailand and Cambodia. The result? A program that helps to alleviate poverty in Thailand that is now being duplicated at microlending organizations around the world.

Resource: Video

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Fox Sees Bright Future for Mexico

Americans are mostly unaware of the enormous progress Mexico has enjoyed since a devastating collapse in the peso in 1994. Former Mexican President Vincente Fox highlights the opportunities, and also addresses the challenges, resulting from the collapse.

Resource: Video

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Entrepreneurship for Economic Growth

International development is increasingly dependent on the entrepreneurship of local citizens. But has the U.S.-caused global recession robbed American business and government of the ability to persuade other countries to partake of the capitalistic entrepreneurial model? In this panel discussion, part of a conference convened by the Hoover Institute at Stanford, experts discuss the role of entrepreneurship in economic growth worldwide.

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Resource: Audio

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International Development Through Women

Microfinance has become a staple of international development. In this audio interview, Chetna Gala-Sinha talks with Stanford Center for Social Innovation correspondent Sheela Sethuraman about how her micro-enterprise development bank and foundation are economically empowering rural women in India. She describes the various tools and services that allow women to become financially independent, provide more adequately for their families, and drive international development.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Optimism for Developing Countries

"There is, perhaps for the first time in history, a reasonable chance of transforming the quality of life and the creative opportunities for the vast majority of humanity."

Resource: Video

Topic:

Philanthropy & Responsible Investing, Economic Development

Patient Capital in International Development

Neither markets nor philanthropy alone are sufficient to help the world's poorest people. In this audio interview with host Sheela Sethuraman, Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund, describes how a combination of patient capital plus management support is making a difference in tackling poverty in Africa and Asia. Novogratz shares experiences and anecdotes from her recently published book, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly.

Resource: Audio

Topic:

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing, Social Entrepreneurship

Hybrid and For-Profit Business Models - Challenges and Opportunities

How do you use for-profit activities to fund your social entrepreneurship mission? In this panel discussion at the Skoll World Forum, experts talk about how to combine for- and nonprofit activities for greatest effect. They show that business and nonprofit can mix, drawing on examples such as efforts to profitably provide water to poor villagers by training street children to run businesses, and franchising medical care to creating a transparent market place for handmade goods.

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Resource: Audio

Case Studies : All | Academic Cases

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Topics:

Health Care, Economic Development

Can Oil Filters Improve Health Care?

For millions of people across Africa, motorcycles can be a key to effective health care. A well-maintained fleet of vehicles and motorcycles to connect patients, medical expertise, and medicine is sometimes the most vital link in the health delivery supply chain. A new case written for the Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum describes one successful program.

Resource: Academic Case

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Social Entrepreneurship: Kiva

Inspired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Jessica and Matt Flannery experimented with micro-lending connecting Ugandan entrepreneurs to friends and family through a pilot internet trial. Kiva, the first person-to- person microlending organization was born.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

As Green As It Gets

As Green as It Gets was a nonprofit economic development organization supporting small, independent producers in disadvantaged Guatemalan communities. The founder pondered how to grow and sustain the organization.

Resource: Academic Case

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Economic Development, Nonprofit Management

Endeavor

Endeavor selects promising entrepreneurs and helps them develop and grow their businesses through mentorship and guidance. In 2007, founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg looked at the organization's expansion strategy.

Resource: Academic Case

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Kiva

By 2007, Kiva had gone through a rapid growth phase. The case recounts the debut of the first online person-to-person microfinance organization and looks at the founders' plan for future development.

Resource: Academic Case

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Social Entrepreneurship: Banco Compartamos

Banco Compartamos has been providing microloans to the poor in rural areas of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Mexico, since 1990. It became one of Mexico’s most successful banks. Critics, however, claim that Compartamos departed from the true spirit of microfinance.

Resource: Academic Case

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Equity Bank, a microfinance service

Equity Bank, a microfinance services provider, experienced a remarkable turnaround in the early 1990s. What strategy did the CEO pursue to accomplish such a feat?

Resource: Academic Case

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Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Healthcare

Gilead Sciences (A): The Gilead Access Program for HIV Drugs

Gilead Sciences designs a strategy for delivering an AIDS drug to developing nations in Africa. This first part of the case describes the organization's initial considerations.

Resource: Academic Case

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Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Healthcare

Gilead Sciences (B): Implementing the Gilead Access Program for HIV Drugs

Gilead Sciences designs a strategy for delivering an AIDS drug to developing nations in Africa. This second part of the case explores the company’s experience with a distribution program.

Resource: Academic Case

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Economic Development, Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

Riders for Health: Health Care Distribution Solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Riders for Health is a U.K.-based nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of transportation systems for health workers in Africa. In 2007, after 11 years in existence, the organization was at a critical point and had to decide what strategies were necessary to expand.

Resource: Academic Case

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Note On Issues Facing Nongovernmental Organizations

Nongovernmental organizations have become an increasingly important intermediary for international development. This note explains how NGOs have evolved, and the role they played in the early 1990s in bringing development to poor nations.

Resource: Academic Case

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Corporate Social Responsibility, Economic Development, Nonprofit Management

TransFair USA

TransFair USA, the fair trade labeling arm of the Fair Trade Labeling Organization, faced strategic challenges in 2003. The founder needed to convince uninformed mainstream consumers and skeptical large-scale coffee roasters to buy Fair Trade Certified coffee.

Resource: Academic Case

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Economic Development, Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The McKay Foundation: The Fight for a Living Wage in San Francisco

The McKay Foundation played a key role in convening the diverse constituencies that had a stake in the living wage issue. The executive director considered what to focus on next after a city ordinance authorized worker pay increases.

Resource: Academic Case

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Note on Vietnam's Business Climate

This note outlines the business climate for entrepreneurs in reform-era Vietnam around 1996. Entrepreneurs had to overcome a host of impediments in gaining access to markets, and in dealing with licensing and corruption.

Resource: Academic Case

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Economic Development, Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

Interplast

Interplast was the first international humanitarian organization to send U.S. doctors overseas to provide free reconstructive surgery in developing countries. This case and its campanion videocase chronicle the debates that arose as the organization began to shift its focus from direct service to education.

Resource: Academic Case

Research Papers : All

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Intermediate Goods and Weak Links in the Theory of Economic Development

What explains the enormous differences in incomes across countries? This paper returns to two old ideas: linkages and complementarity. These forces considerably amplify distortions to the allocation of resources, bringing us closer to understanding large income differences across countries.

Resource: Research Paper

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Understand Young Companies in Your Own Backyard, Report Urges Global Leaders

Policy makers need to understand how early-stage companies in their own area work, rather than try to create another Silicon Valley, says Stanford management professor George Foster. He is coauthor of a new report published by the World Economic Forum.

Resource: Research Paper

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Why Do Firms in Developing Countries Have Low Productivity?

In summary, we find evidence that firms in developing countries are often badly managed, which substantially reduces their productivity.

Resource: Research Paper

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Firms in Corrupt Countries Pay a Price in Market Value

Virtue seems to pay according to Professor Charles M.C. Lee whose research shows that publicly-held firms in countries perceived as less corrupt trade at bigger market premiums than those in places deemed more corrupt.

Resource: Research Paper

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Why Bank Equity Is Not Expensive

Since the 2008 market crash, banking interests and economists have clashed over how much of their operations banks should fund with equity as opposed to debt. Bankers and others often say that, "equity is expensive." A recent paper, coauthored by three faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, argues: "Quite simply, bank equity is not expensive from a social perspective, and high leverage is not required in order for banks to perform all their socially valuable functions."

Resource: Research Paper

Courses : All

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Strategic Thinking in Action - In Business and Beyond: STRAMGT 373

This seminar helps participants develop strategically informed action plans that are imaginative, inspiring, and workable in highly dynamic environments. Through informed debate and the writing and presentation of position papers, participants evaluate and hone their views on the seminar's critical themes.

Resource: MBA Course

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Design for Extreme Affordability: OIT 333/4

Students apply engineering and business skills to design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. The aim is to address challenges faced by the world's poor.

Resource: MBA Course

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The International Economy: Policies and Theory: MGTECON 334

This course gives students an understanding of international trade economics, and analyzes the political processes by which international trade policy is determined. It combines lecture and mini-case studies.

Resource: MBA Course

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Growth and Stabilization in the Global Economy: MGTECON 300

This course gives students the background they need to understand the broad movements in the global economy. Key topics include long-run economic growth, technological change, wage inequality, international trade, interest rates, inflation, exchange rates, and monetary policy.

Resource: MBA Course

Innovators : All

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Farm to Cup Merger Emphasizes Partnership & Economic Empowerment

[photo - Farm to Cup - Root Capital Lending]

A grassroots student effort led by Caroline Mullen, MBA ’12, Catha Mullen, MBA ’13, and Monica Lewis, MBA ’12, now has even more impact through a merger with Pachamama Coffee Cooperative.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Economic Development, Healthcare

Cross-Sector Effort Helps People See Better

Vision care is something that is practically taken for granted in the United States, but that’s not the case throughout much of the world. Some 300 million around the globe suffer from correctable vision loss, leading, as Ashanthi Mathai, MBA '04, says, “to people accepting their vision impairment and adjusting their lives around it.” The result? A lower quality of life, restricted job options, and even further economic distress.

Resource: Alumni

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Economic Development, Environment

How Growth Can Be Green

A Stanford GSB student looks at the value of renewable energy in the developing world.

Resource: Student

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Economic Development, Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship

Creating Peace, One Entrepreneur at a Time

It was the suicide of a young man that turned Vivek Garg toward using business as a means of fostering peace and reconciliation.

Resource: Student

Topic :

Economic Development, Healthcare

Mark Conroe (MBA '85)

Mark Conroe is leveraging his real estate experience and decades of volunteer work to help build the San Francisco House of Hope, a supportive housing project for the homeless.

Resource: Alumni

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Digital Diagnosis

A talk with a Stanford dermatologist and entrepreneur who cofounded an internet alternative to the doctors’ office.

Resource: News Article

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Bill Gates Says Foreign Aid is Threatened, but Big Ideas Can Turn the Tide

Just off a plane from Africa, Bill Gates visits Stanford to talk about innovation, but not the software kind. Scientists and engineers, he said, need to focus on products that help improve the lives of the world's poor even though the market directs people to help the wealthiest.

Resource: Video

Topic :

Harnessing Mobile Tech And Students To Promote Development In Kenya

Stanford students and faculty partner with Kenyan organizations to test ways to reduce urban poverty through novel applications of mobile phone technology.

Resource: News Article

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Field Research As A Tool For Poverty Alleviation

Researchers share results and ideas for tackling extreme poverty through innovations in institutions, management, and technology

Resource: News Article

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