Insights for Action: Unlocking the Promise of Social Entrepreneurship

The Insights for Action seminar series explores how researchers and practitioners within and beyond Oxford are using research insights to drive social change.

In this month's seminar, which we are fortunate to be co-hosting with colleagues from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Portulans Institute, and the Saïd Business School, we will be launching and discussing the 2024 Edition of the Global Innovation Index Report and its theme of social entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on the future of the field, and its ability to catalyse transformative innovation and societal impact. The discussion will build off of the report's global launch which will take place in Geneva on September 26.

Co-authored by our moderator Professor Marya Besharov, the report takes stock of the global state of social entrepreneurship, exploring how social enterprises create impact and innovate while navigating the competing demands of the social and market sectors. Marya will be joined in conversation by key experts and social entrepreneurs who have contributed to the report as well as its adjoining case studies and expert contribution chapters (which can be found online) to discuss their own experiences as social entrepreneurs and systems orchestrators, and what the launch means for the field.

We will also hear from Marco M. Alemán, Assistant Director General of WIPO, and Soumitra Dutta, founder of the Global Innovation Index and Dean of the Saïd Business School, who will open the seminar with some brief remarks about this year's report.