Creating Social and Economic Value

This course equips students to select, build, and lead different types of organizations that create social and economic value in a capitalist economy. The aim of the course is to strengthen organizational leaders navigating a domestic economy of scarce resources while competing in a diverse, world-wide economy according to the organizational type of choice. A society that offers multiple different organizational forms has an evolutionary and global competitive advantage because social, economic, political, and technological needs, priorities, and capabilities can rapidly change. Choosing the best organizational type is directly linked to preferred social values. Drawing from research on social values and institutional theory, the conceptual framework for the course is a dynamic model of the economy driven by social values preferences and that features such organizational categories as for-profit and nonprofit organizations, cooperatives, philanthropic foundations, government agencies, and international, nongovernmental organizations. Concepts of values and organizations are social constructs and are shaped by the political economy of the nation. We address both the national context in which organizations compete and how it is shaped by political as well as economic forces and, at the organizational level, examine the articles of incorporation and bylaws of specific organizations. Conversion of one to another organizational type is reviewed, as well as hybrid arrangements and start-ups. The role of boards, advisors, and fiduciary responsibility is also covered. The course addresses democratic capitalism, institutional theory, the social economy model, organizational differences and their comparative advantages, and a comparative analysis of Anglo and Nordic capitalist societies, including their welfare systems. After conducting field work comparing organizational types, students prepare a final paper on an organizational type that best serves their objectives and explain how and why it does so.