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Master Social Innovation & Management Curriculum
Participate in a world-class master's program while pursuing your career.
The topics covered and discussed in the Master Social Innovation & Management range from innovation and strategy, social entrepreneurship, marketing psychology and market research, social work and impact in a digital environment (blockchain and impact, digital citizenship, impact reporting), crowdfunding, social finance and impact investing, social politics, and conflicting institutional logics to grant proposal writing within the European framework. In addition, two electives provide the opportunity and flexibility to set individual priorities within personal interests.
Below, please find an overview of all modules. Click on the titles for detailed content information.
Social Innovation and Strategy
The ability to come up with novel services and products that intentionally address social problems is increasingly seen as a necessary core competence of organizations that want to strive in a resource-scarce and volatile environment. This module is devoted to the conceptual foundations of social innovation and provides principles and techniques of innovation management. Moreover, it looks at organizational models geared towards innovation and strategies for implementation.
Marketing Psychology and Market Research
In order to define how target groups, beneficiaries and potential customers can be addressed effectively, comprehensive data on their behavior is indispensable. Behavioral patterns, motivations, attitudes, preferences, etc have to be analyzed, based on socio-psychological theories and concepts that explain these patterns. Thus, this module focus on methods of empirical research that contribute to unveiling and addressing these patterns.
Organizational Behavior and Organization Lab
Designed as the kick-off of the program, it allows the participants to become acquainted with the program’s content and course, the faculty members, and their fellow students. Team building exercises will facilitate collaboration. Specifics of organizational behavior will be actively experienced in a management game. Students will collaborate on different management tasks and slip into a defined role. As part of this learning experience, we will reflect on work processes, goal achievement, fulfillment of specified roles, and individual learnings.
Digital Solutions for Impact and Digital Citizenship
Digitalization is here to stay. These sessions introduce the intersections of digitalization and social innovation. The contribution of blockchain technology to social innovations will be discussed based on use-cases. Subsequently, we will explore issues such as open data and open government, digital democracy, and technical innovation in social service provision, in particular as regards their potential to address societal development.
Evaluation and Impact Measurement & Impact Reporting and Communication
Impact and its measurement are becoming ever more important for all kinds of organizations, especially for social ventures. This session explores what social impact is (and is not), why organizations should invest in building social impact measurement capacity, and how you can measure social impact effectively. Students will dive into concepts of impact measurement, such as theory of change, identification of target groups, attribution of outcomes, and methods for data gathering. We will illustrate these aspects by practices in evidence-based healthcare. Finally, lessons learnt are applied to students’ cases.
Finance, Accounting, and Strategies for Impact & Social Finance and Impact Investing
Social finance and impact investing promise to substantially increase funding opportunities for impact-driven organizations in terms of market development and accessible funds. These modules provide comprehensive insights into these topics and elaborate on relevant actors, approaches, instruments and models. Moreover, they offer space for reflection on the benefits of these concepts for participants and discuss potential desired but also undesired consequences of working with impact investors, social banks, and the likes. These modules will take place in the “Impact City” The Hague.
Social Politics and Economics I, II
We introduce conceptual and theoretical foundations of economic and social policy: objectives, instruments, actors, and the various fields of social policy. We then dive deeper into social policy and discuss institutional choice, distinct welfare regimes and the welfare mix. Within the welfare mix, Civil Society Organizations play a crucial role. Hence, we also discuss so-called nonprofit regimes.
Social Entrepreneurship
In recent years, many new types of actors have emerged at the intersections of markets, the public and the nonprofit sector. Social entrepreneurs are most prominent amongst them, applying the instruments of startups and the private sector for societal purpose. In this module, we scrutinize the meaning and different incarnations of social entrepreneurship in Europe will. We explore the new actors, tools, language and funding instruments as well as the limitations of the concept.
Trends and Implications in Social Management and Innovation
In this module, we invite participants to a conference. Researchers and practitioners will present most recent studies and state of the art insights on the various topics of social innovation and management. Students will actively contribute by slipping into the role of discussants, and by presenting the results of their master's theses.
Study Project
Students will engage in experience-based learning, challenging individual approaches to tackle practical challenges. Likewise, we will reflect on the adaptability, usability and power of concepts, tools and methods. In this module, we aim to continuously push the study project forward. In four to five loops, students will get the opportunity to discuss their projects with expert coaches from practice and research. The focus will be on adopting and transferring the contents of the respective week to the study projects.
Case Studies in Social Management and Innovation
We offer case study sessions throughout the program. In these sessions, students get the opportunity to study real cases of social innovation on site and during field trips. These case studies facilitate interdisciplinary learning and move the learning experience beyond classroom knowledge exchange to analysis, evaluation, and application. Social innovators from various sectors and the ecosystem of social innovation will share their experiences with students and discuss the knowledge transfer.
Contemporary Issues in the Field: Deepening a Subject Area I & II
These modules provide students with the opportunity for flexible specialization. They may focus the elective coursework on a particular topic related to social innovation or social management. There are two options available: to select from a provided list of potential elective modules, and/or to present a self-selected course from other providers on a subject that is of special interest (to be approved by the academic director). Thus, students may also facilitate their study project and master's thesis.
Presentation & Communication Skills Training
Getting your message across, pitching powerfully, writing incisive posts, negotiating effectively, making a good first impression: Communicating professionally is an essential precondition for establishing and maintaining successful relationships with stakeholders and partners. Organizational and individual communication patterns will be put to test in this module.
European Framework and Institutions & Grant Proposal Writing
European integration has embraced an increasing number of societal fields in the last decades and put forward many opportunities to engage on a supranational level. Against this background, developing an understanding of these arenas becomes highly relevant. Building on this overview of the European framework, the skills for effective project development and grant writing will be addressed.
Reflective Practice
This module offers students space for in-depth, structured reflection on their own professional practice. The aim is to become aware (again) of one’s own coping strategies for operational and professional challenges, share them with others in order to critically reflect and expand management skills and leadership competencies. The reflective learning process is supported by a reflection-on-practice diary, four peer-reflection sessions, two facilitated group-coaching sessions and a final reflection account.
Master's Thesis
At the end of the program, students will have to write a master's thesis in order to receive the academic degree of Master of Science (Continuing Education). This is to guarantee that the graduates of the Master program are able to write scientific papers on their own.