Strategic Management - Social Business & Enterprise Concentration (B.Com.) (15 credits)
Offered by: Management (Desautels Faculty of Management)
Degree: Bachelor of Commerce
Program credit weight: 15
Program Description
There are two options offered in the Strategic Management Concentration: Global Strategy and Social Business & Enterprise.
The concentration in Strategic Management - Social Business & Enterprise Option is intended for students interested in harnessing the not-for-profit, civil, and for-profit sectors to tackle social issues. Students will be challenged to reconceptualise strategy formation and implementation with an emphasis on economic development, the environment, corporate social responsibility, and social impact. The concentration will impart a comprehensive set of management skills, encompassing cross-sectoral collaboration and social entrepreneurship. It encourages students to complement their courses in Management with an array of course offerings from outside the Faculty. The concentration complements concentrations and majors in other Management areas, adding a holistic and integrated perspective. Anticipated career trajectories include positions in NGOs; international organizations such as those affiliated with the UN; social enterprise; government agencies; as well as in the fields of consulting and corporate social responsibility.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
9-15 credits from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MGPO 365 | Business-Government Relations. | 3 |
Business-Government Relations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The political environment in which business organizations operate: how governments control, regulate, promote, and compete with the private sector and how corporate policy responds to, and seeks to influence, these activities. | ||
| MGPO 438 | Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. | 3 |
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores key concepts associated with social entrepreneurship and social innovation – the application of principles of entrepreneurship and innovation to solve social problems through social ventures, enterprises and not-for-profit organizations. Focuses on the social economy, including how the market system can be leveraged to create social value. | ||
| MGPO 440 | Strategies for Sustainability. | 3 |
Strategies for Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course explores the relationship between economic activity, management, and the natural environment. Using readings, discussions and cases, the course will explore the challenges that the goal of sustainable development poses for our existing notions of economic goals, production and consumption practices and the management of organizations. | ||
| MGPO 450 | Ethics in Management. | 3 |
Ethics in Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of the economic, legal and ethical responsibilities of managers in both private and public organizations. Through readings, case studies, discussions and projects the class evaluates alternative ethical systems and norms of behaviour and draws conclusions as to the right, proper and just decisions and actions in the face of moral dilemmas. The focus of this course is on the decision process, values and consistency of values of the individual and on the impact of systems control and incentives on managerial morality. | ||
| MGPO 475 | Strategies for Developing Countries. | 3 |
Strategies for Developing Countries. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Strategic management challenges in developing and emerging economies. Focus on strategies that foster both firm competitiveness and economic development, including: technological capabilities, new forms of organization, small and large firms, global production, social impact, global standards and governance. | ||
| MGPO 485 | Emerging Technologies: Organizing and Societal Stakes. | 3 |
Emerging Technologies: Organizing and Societal Stakes. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An examination of emerging technologies and their impacton decision-making, coordination, control, and innovationin management. Broader societal implications of thesetechnologies and how to develop strategic responses. Focus on an experiential consulting project. | ||
0-6 credits from:
(Note: no more than 3 credits may be taken at the 200 level )
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| AGRI 411 | Global Issues on Development, Food and Agriculture. | 3 |
Global Issues on Development, Food and Agriculture. Terms offered: Winter 2026 International development and world food security and challenges in developing countries. Soil and water management, climate change, demographic issues, plant and animal resources conservation, bio-products and biofuels, economic and environmental issues specially in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Globalization, sustainable development, technology transfer and human resources needs for rural development. | ||
| ANTH 212 | Anthropology of Development. | 3 |
Anthropology of Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Processes of developmental change, as they affect small communities in the Third World and in unindustrialized parts of developed countries. Problems of technological change, political integration, population growth, industrialization, urban growth, social services, infrastructure and economic dependency. | ||
| BUSA 300 | Case Analysis and Presentation. | 3 |
Case Analysis and Presentation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Integration of core knowledge and practice for preparing and presenting case studies, including professor coaching, preparation and presentation feedback, presentation skills, leadership skills, team building skills, analytical skills, logical thinking, debating, persuasive communications and cross discipline work. | ||
| ECON 313 | Economic Development 1. | 3 |
Economic Development 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Microeconomic theories of economic development and empirical evidence on population, labour, firms, poverty. Inequality and environment. | ||
| ECON 314 | Economic Development 2. | 3 |
Economic Development 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Macroeconomic development issues, including theories of growth, public finance, debt, currency crises, corruption, structural adjustment, democracy and global economic organization. | ||
| INTD 200 | Introduction to International Development. | 3 |
Introduction to International Development. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An interdisciplinary introduction to the field of International Development Studies focusing on the theory and practice of development. It examines various approaches to international development, including past and present relationships between developed and underdeveloped societies, and pays particular attention to power and resource distribution globally and within nations. | ||
| MGPO 430 | Practicum in Not for Profit Consulting. | 3 |
Practicum in Not for Profit Consulting. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course is designed around a pro bono consulting experience. It is meant to connect students to both the NGO community as well as the consulting world. The students go through the entire process of researching potential NGOs, writing and getting a Letter of Proposal Signed off, undertaking the first hand research and analysis, presenting the project results to the Board of the NGO, and finally presenting it to both the professor and the office of the partnering consulting firm. Students are put into teams whose structure is meant to mimic that of a real consulting team. | ||
| MGPO 433 | Topics in Social Business and Enterprise. | 3 |
Topics in Social Business and Enterprise. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Specialized advanced topic in social business and enterprise. | ||
| MGPO 435 | The Origins of Capitalism. | 3 |
The Origins of Capitalism. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course covers the evolution of modern business institutions from their roots in the early middle ages to the modern era. Covering economic issues in the context of arts and culture, it offers a "distant mirror on globalization." | ||
| MGPO 460 | Managing Innovation. | 3 |
Managing Innovation. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Firms face difficulties in developing new products. This course examines the new product development process to understand why problems occur and what managers can do. Topics include the creative synthesis of market and technology; the coordination of functions; and the strategic connection between the project and the strategy. | ||