A social enterprise is a business with social objectives. Social enterprises seek to maximise profits while maximising benefits to society and the environment, and the profits are principally used to fund the company’s social mission. Characteristics of the business model include a customer-oriented approach, investment in employees’ wellbeing and transparency in governance and activities.
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Master’s Thesis Award 2023
Have you written a master’s thesis focusing on social entrepreneurship? Do you know someone who has? We are looking for outstanding master theses and will award the best one with a social entrepreneurship master thesis award. The winner will receive an award of 1000 euros.
All the competition participants will receive a year-long membership in the Finnish Social Entrepreneurship Research Network (FinSERN), which allows them to participate in the association’s events and utilise other membership benefits.
The winner will be selected by a jury nominated by the organisers and announced in November 2024.
Criteria and Assessment of the Master’s Thesis
Master’s theses completed in universities or universities of applied sciences can apply to the competition. Research works submitted to the competition must be formally approved by a Finnish higher education institution between March 31st 2023 and September 30th 2024. The master’s thesis can be written in Finnish, Swedish or English.
The field of science has not been determined and the master’s thesis can, for example, focus on the following:
- significance and operational environment of social enterprises in Finland,
- social enterprises as common good service providers,
- identifying factors in starting a social enterprise,
- indication and communication of the social enterprise’s impact,
- social enterprises and social innovation.
Innovativeness, usefulness, new point of views to the academic discussion and quality in the research implementation will be taken into consideration in the assessment. If the master’s thesis is partly confidential, the assessment will be carried out regarding the public part. Awarded work can be empirical or theoretical research.
Propose a Master’s Thesis to the Competition
The social entrepreneurship master’s thesis award can be applied with an informal application form indicating:
- writer of the master’s thesis,
- higher education institution and degree program the thesis was completed in,
- title and a short abstract (1 A4) of the master’s thesis
- contact information of the thesis supervisor and supporting arguments to win the award (1 A4)
- link to the master’s thesis.
Applications for the master thesis award can be submitted by the writer or the thesis supervisor (only if the writer allows it). All the master’s theses participating in the competition might be published on the Centre of Expertise in Social Entrepreneurship’s website.
Applications must be submitted by November 30th 2024 using this form.
More information about the award and application: Harri Kostilainen (harri.kostilainen@diak.fi)
The social entrepreneurship master thesis award aims to encourage students to write a thesis focusing on social entrepreneurship and thus promote skills and competencies in Finnish social enterprises. The competition organisers also wish to communicate about their work towards social enterprises in universities and universities of applied sciences.