Embrace (B): Opportunity Assessment

Learning Objective

·To develop a framework for social entrepreneurship incorporating innovation, i.e. finding enterprising solutions to solving social problems using technology. ·To develop capabilities in opportunity identification, particularly by thinking through competing opportunities in order to identify the most meaningful and sustainable ones. ·To understand the process of market feasibility analysis in a social context. ·To enable strategic thinking on how to compete for access to restricted capital and compete with industry incumbents who may have better technology and other complementary assets.To develop appropriate business models to realize the business potential of an innovation by understanding the complementaries of external ties and internal expertise.The case would fit well at undergraduate or executive MBA or MBA levels. It can be used in courses on innovation management, social entrepreneurship, technology strategy, strategic management or technology commercialization.In a course on social entrepreneurship, the case can be used as a capstone exercise, and can be run over a sequence of four classes, with specific assignments provided for each part. In a course on entrepreneurship or innovation management, the case can be used in a two-part sequence, where the first part focuses on the business viability with cases A, B and C given prior to the class, and where the second part focuses on business growth or on the roles of business models for technology commercialization, with case D as the basis. It can also be used as an extended classroom exercise, where the class goes through the cases sequentially, allocating one to one and a half hours for each, with 15-30 minutes in between for reading and subsequent discussion.