Center for Social Innovation

Wind Could Meet Many Times World's Total Power Demand by 2030, Stanford Researchers Say

Adapting a sophisticated climate model, researchers show that there is plenty of wind available to supply half to several times the world's total energy needs within the next two decades.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Government, Leadership

Stanford gathering explores why national security needs the humanities

Military leaders, Stanford scholars and government officials contribute to a congressional report on how the humanities factor into international relations and national security.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development, Social Entrepreneurship

Hire Missionaries, not Mercenaries

James Gutierrez, MBA '05, discusses how he built Progreso Financiero, where he gets his best ideas, and the best advice he's ever received.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Government

Why Do We Still Let the Electoral College Pick Our President?

Stanford Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jack Rakove believes the founding fathers would agree that it’s time to change the 225-year-old Electoral College.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Scientists predict major shifts in Pacific ecosystems by 2100

Scientific models suggest that major Pacific ecosystems will move hundreds of miles by 2100 as a result of climate change. The results of this research could help officials manage the potentially significant impacts – on sea creatures and humans – of marine habitat shifts.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Environment, Social Entrepreneurship

Two Green Approaches

There are all manner of approaches to 'green investing,' and the folks at Carbon Lighthouse — recipients of an $80,000 Social Innovation Fellowship from the Center for Social Innovation at the Graduate School of Business — manage to combine two of them under the same roof.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Wind Could Meet Many Times World's Total Power Demand by 2030, Stanford Researchers Say

Adapting a sophisticated climate model, researchers show that there is plenty of wind available to supply half to several times the world's total energy needs within the next two decades.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development, Social Entrepreneurship

Hire Missionaries, not Mercenaries

James Gutierrez, MBA '05, discusses how he built Progreso Financiero, where he gets his best ideas, and the best advice he's ever received.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Government

Why Do We Still Let the Electoral College Pick Our President?

Stanford Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jack Rakove believes the founding fathers would agree that it’s time to change the 225-year-old Electoral College.

Resource: News Article

Topic :

Economic Development, Education

What’s Next: Antipoverty Apps

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

mPowering has created an app that awards goods and services to individuals facing extreme poverty when they make beneficial choices, such as attending school or seeking prenatal care.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Human Rights, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Research: The Emotions of Aid

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

“One death is a tragedy; 1 million is a statistic,” Joseph Stalin is supposed to have said. The more people we see suffering, the less we care.

-Subscription Required

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Education, Nonprofit Management

The Challenge of Organizational Learning

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Disseminating insights and know-how across any organization is critical to improving performance, but nonprofits struggle to implement organizational learning and make it a priority. A recent study found three common barriers to knowledge sharing across nonprofits and their networks, as well as ways and means to overcome them.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Environment, Human Rights

The Problem with Fair Trade Coffee

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Fair Trade-certified coffee is growing in consumer familiarity and sales, but strict certification requirements are resulting in uneven economic advantages for coffee growers and lower quality coffee for consumers. By failing to address these problems, industry confidence in Fair Trade coffee is slipping.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Corporate Social Responsibility, Nonprofit Management

Q&A: Roundtable on Shared Value

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Summer 2011

Executives from 10 major corporations gathered in New York City to discuss the innovative ways that they are putting societal issues at the core of their companies’ strategy and operations.

Resource: Stanford Social Innovation Review Article

Topic :

Government, Human Rights

Spinternet

The Internet has the potential to do a lot of good in the world, but we must not ignore the emerging strategies of negative influence.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

When More Mission Equals More Money

The more a business focuses on it’s social mission, the more revenue it will generate.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Membership Trends: A Word to the Wise Art Museum

Art museums are having trouble drawing a crowd, what are they doing wrong?

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Giving Sector Needs to Get Real

Nonprofits need to do a better job at engaging their givers in their organization if they want to continue to receive funding.

Resource: Blog Post

Topic :

Social Entrepreneurship

SkollFest

Reporting from the 6th annual Skoll World Forum for social innovation

Resource: Blog Post

Video/Audio : All | Audio | Video

Topic:

Capital for Early Stage Innovation

The United States has been a global leader to medical technology innovation, however a changing investment environment and tougher regulatory requirements prove unique challenges for early stage innovators. From the 2011 Stanford Graduate School of Business Healthcare Summit, Stefanos Zenios, director of Stanford's GSB Program in Healthcare Innovation convenes a panel of health care investors who give those entrepreneurs starting out a full picture of the product development cycle and how to successfully raise capital.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Education, Government

Addressing the K-12 Crisis

How can the Unites States get its K-12 schools out of their current crisis? In this panel, experts from various fields who are passionate about improving our kids' lives and our nation's future discuss why things are failing, what's working to make them better, and what the best options are, from teacher education to integrating technology. They spoke at the Global Education Conference at Stanford.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Government, Healthcare

Changing Behavior and Changing Policies

The Veteran's Administration, Medicare, and Medicaid make up the largest repository of public health data in the world, and now it's being made available in appropriate forms for the use of patients and innovators alike. Todd Parks, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, wants to change the fee structure of healthcare from "Fee for Service" to something more efficient, and he's freeing up information on public health so everyone can see and help design better health systems.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Environment, Government

EDF Future of Green Calls

Could it be that Defense takes the lead on climate change initiatives? An important DoD report cited climate change as a top national security concern. On this Future of Green Call, Daniel Kreeger explains how Defense is planning ways to avoid conflict over essential supplies such as clean water, resource consumption and keeping bases safe from predicted coastal flooding. Discussion also includes lessons learned from climate catastrophes and how to respond more quickly and efficiently to crisis.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Nonprofit Management, Social Entrepreneurship

Sustainable Excellence: The Future of Business in a Fast-Changing World

Businesses are in the business of business. But they are beginning to be in the business of doing social good as well. As companies shift to incorporate environmental, social, and welfare-based themes into business plans and products, Aron Cramer points out a trend of decreasing poverty and improving the environment as corporations look to increase both profit and human development.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

What Healthcare Needs is Systems Engineering: Dr. John D. Evans

"No one has ever really designed the Intensive Care Unit," argues Dr. John D. Evans. Efficient technologies within the ICU are only half of the puzzle.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Biotechnology, Diagnostics, and Genomics: Panel Discussion

What are five individuals in biotechnology doing to make the sector more efficient?

Resource: Video

Topic:

2011 Business of Education Symposium

"Business has to be about improving education."

Resource: Video

Topic:

The Future of the Healthcare Sector: John Capek

At the 2011 GSB Healthcare Summit, John Capek, Executive Vice President of Abbott's Medical Devices business, shares his thoughts on the future of the healthcare sector.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Changing Behavior and Changing Policies: BJ Fogg

At the 2011 GSB Healthcare Summit, Director of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab BJ Fogg spoke about changing behavior to build new habits.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Government, Nonprofit Management

A Behavioral Science Perspective on Why People Vote

The investigation into what messaging motivates people to vote and the effectiveness of facilitating a voting plan during a presidential election.

Resource: Video

Topic:

Healthcare, Nonprofit Management

Solar Power in a Suitcase

What good is new energy technology if it can't be transported to the regions where it is most needed? In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman talks with Laura Stachel and Hal Aronson, co-founders of WE CARE Solar, about the international journey that led them to create one of the world's most portable solar energy systems. As The Tech Awards 2011 laureates of the Nokia Health Award, these two innovators work to bring reliable power to health care facilities all over the world.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Economic Development

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:

Environment, Nonprofit Management

Sustainable Water Treatment

How can a young nonprofit organization make a tangible improvement in people's health through clean water using only the power of gravity? This was the challenge for Daniel Smith and the AguaClara team when they began work to introduce community-level drinking water treatment plants in Honduras. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman learns from the 2011 Intel Environment Award winners about the importance of using local resources and experts to encourage horizontal learning.

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Resource: Audio

Topic:

Leveraging Online Collaboration

How can nonprofit and crowdsourcing experts collaborate to make media more accessible? In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman talks to Dean Jansen, co-Founder of Universal Subtitles, a volunteer platform for doing collaborative subtitling and translation of videos. As the winner of The Tech Awards 2011 Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award, Jansen discussed Universal Subtitles' current challenges and future potential in leveraging internet volunteerism.

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Resource: Audio

Case Studies : All | Academic Cases

Topics:

Breaking New Ground: Using the Internet to Scale

Commissioned by KaBOOM! and authored by Katherine Fulton and alumna Heather McLeod Grant of the Monitor Institute, this case study looks at the challenges KaBOOM! faced and lessons the organization learned while pioneering an online strategy to scale its impact. This strategy involves giving away the nonprofit model online for free to empower others to act on KaBoom's behalf.

Resource: Practitioner Case

Topics:

Education, Nonprofit Management

Teach For America: The Bay Area Expansion (A)

Teach for America, a nonprofit that places talented college graduates in teaching positions in under-resourced areas, needed to expand its placements in the San Francisco Bay Area. Case A details the challenges of TFA’s attempt to expand into the San Francisco Unified School District.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Wal-Mart: Nonmarket Pressure and Reputation Risk (A)

In 2002, Wal-Mart came under attack for its inadequate pay and benefits, and its negative impact on local economies. This case examines the issues involved.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

A conference at Stanford brought together professionals from foundations to share best practices, discuss emerging innovations, and build professional networks. This summary presents key issues discussed.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment

FedEx and Environmental Defense: Building a Hybrid Delivery Fleet

From specification to production: FedEx and Environmental Defense started a collaboration in 2000 to develop energy efficient delivery trucks. Eaton Corporation and Freightliner soon joined them to prototype the new vehicles.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Teach For America: The Bay Area Expansion (B)

Teach for America, a nonprofit that places talented college graduates in teaching positions in under-resourced areas, needed to expand its placements in the San Francisco Bay Area. Case B details the outcome of TFA’s attempt to expand into the San Francisco Unified School District.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

The Altman Foundation

The Altman Foundation was established to serve the people of New York City. By 2005, the foundation was poised to take its strategic philanthropy to the next level by implementing a broader system of research and evaluation.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Economic Development, Environment, Social Entrepreneurship

Waste Concern

Waste Concern in Bangladesh had earned an international reputation for its innovative approach to waste management in Dhaka. The organization needed to consider two opportunities to raise capital for expansion from large foreign firms.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Developing and Marketing a Blockbuster Drug: Lessons from Eli Lilly's Experience with Prozac

Eli Lilly’s drug, Prozac, changed the way depression was treated. The case explores the history of the making of this “blockbuster” drug, and the challenges involved.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

Abbott Laboratories and HUMIRA: Launching a Blockbuster Drug

Abbott Laboratories’ new rheumatoid arthritis drug had just been approved. The team would have to carefully orchestrate every aspect of the launch to quickly establish the product in a competitive market.

Resource: Academic Case

Topics:

McQueeney's Publishing

This case presents two fictional vignettes dealing with issues in labor law. In one, a company president must deal with a threat from her labor force to unionize; in the other, she must handle a situation in which one of her top salespeople is having an affair with a key customer.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

The Nonmarket Environment of Google

With Google's rapid international growth, came a number of nonmarket challenges including privacy issues in both the United States and European Union, the spectrum auction, intellectual property, corporate social responsibility, and business practices in China.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Models of Corporate Governance: Who's the Fairest of Them All?

This case explores the various corporate governance systems that have been adopted in the United States and abroad. It examines issues of control, director and auditor independence, board structure, and more.

Resource: Academic Case

Topic :

Economic Development, Social Entrepreneurship

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

Topic :

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

Topic :

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

Research Papers : All

Topics:

Corporate Social Responsibility, Government, Nonprofit Management

Morally Motivated Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is the private provision of public goods and private redistribution. This paper examines the scope of self-regulation motivated by altruistic moral preferences that are reciprocal and stronger the closer are citizens in a socioeconomic distance.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

Economic Development, Government

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

Topics:

Are Educational Vouchers Only Redistributive?

It is unclear if vouchers increase educational productivity or are purely redistributive, benefiting recipients by giving them access to more desirable peers at others' expense.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

The Impact of Race-Based Performance Differences on Perceptions of Test Legitimacy

This paper examines if perceptions of test legitimacy increase when racial differences on test performance match the racial status quo or when a perceiver's in-group performs better than expected, relative to other groups.

Resource: Research Paper

Topics:

When Inequality Matters: The Effect of Inequality Frames on Academic Engagement

Research indicates that, among women and ethnic minorities, perceived inequality reduces the association between self-esteem and academic outcomes.

Resource: Research Paper

Courses : All

Topic :

Biodesign Innovation: OIT 581/3

The two-quarter Elective Course series provides lectures from a diverse group of faculty that expose students to the practical aspects of technology invention and development. The class features a presentation or discussion from one of the guest speakers or faculty. Students work in small project teams in the Biodesign prototyping lab or bench space, collaborating with the fellows of the program.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Social Entrepreneurship

The Power of Social Technology: GSBGEN 358

The goal of this seminar is to investigate how social technology (e.g., blogs, websites, podcasts, widgets, community groups, social network feeds) can change attitudes and behaviors in ways that cultivate social change. We study the strategies and tactics used by companies and causes that have successfully catalyzed social persuasion.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Economic Development

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

Topic :

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship: STRAMGT 369

This course focuses on the efforts of private citizens to create effective responses to social needs and innovative solutions to social problems. It equips students with frameworks and tools that will help them be more effective as a social entrepreneur.

Resource: MBA Course

Topic :

Strategic Management of Nonprofits: STRAMGT 368

This course surveys strategic, governance, and management issues facing a wide range of nonprofit organizations in an era of venture philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. It introduces students to core managerial issues in the nonprofit sector, such as development/fundraising, investment management, performance management and nonprofit finance.

Resource: MBA Course

Innovators : All

Topic :

Jim Thompson (MBA '86)

Jim reflects on how the GSB shaped his sense of identity and expanded his idea of what is possible, leading to his founding of the Positive Coaching Alliance, a national nonprofit that has impacted more than 4 million youth athletes.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Leadership, Philanthropy, Responsible Investing

Karen Routt (MBA '83)

Caring for aging parents is a challenge many face, yet there is no clear path or pattern for how to manage this stage of life. Karen Routt shares her expertise at the nexus between technology and caring for the elderly.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Daryn Dodson (MBA '07)

Daryn Dodson is passionate about identifying and developing leaders with a social conscience. He has turned that passion into action by promoting entrepreneurship in post-Katrina New Orleans and in his current impact investment consulting role.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Ashley Boren (MBA '89)

Ashley Boren explains how protecting the environment can also be good for business. She spoke at the Oct 20, 2011 anniversary event celebrating the school's 40 year commitment to educating socially-conscious leaders.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

Economic Development, Healthcare

Amy Saxton (MBA '04)

50% of low-income minority students are not graduating high school on time, and only 10% will graduate from a four-year college by age 26. Amy Saxton, CEO of Summer Search, reflects on how tenacity and emotional intelligence play into life success.

Resource: Alumni

Topic :

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: Innovators

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