Provided by Ali Aslan Gümüsay, University of Hamburg/Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

Guiding questions: How do entrepreneurial ventures and established companies engage with societal challenges such as the Covid crisis? What is the role of technology?

Lecture

Slides: PDF / PPT

Core readings

George, G., Merrill, R. K., & Schillebeeckx, S. J. D. (2020): Digital sustainability and entrepreneurship: How digital innovations are helping tackle climate change and sustainable development. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, in print. PDF

Contemporary news article

Lanier, J., & Weyl, E. G. (2020): How Civic Technology Can Help Stop a Pandemic. Foreign Affairs, March 20.

Post-lecture assignment

Identify an entrepreneurial venture, write a brief summary of the organization and explain how it engages with the Covid crisis. Also review the success/failure of this venture (300-400 words).

Background readings

Gümüsay, A.A. (2018): Hybrid Organizing in the Face of Grand Challenges. BOS Blog, July 3.

Günzel-Jensen, F., Siebold, N., Kroeger, A., Korsgaard, S. (2020): Do the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals matter for social entrepreneurial ventures? A bottom-up perspective. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 13:e00162. PDF via Journal 

Tracey, P. (2020): The Corporate Pivot: Radical change in times of crisis. Cambridge Social Innovation Blog, March 25.

Watson, I., Jeong, S., Hollingsworth, J., & Booth, T. (2020): How this South Korean company created coronavirus test kits in three weeks. CNN, March 12.