Exploring social entrepreneurship education from a Web-based pedagogical perspective

As Internet has evolved itself as a powerful media for communication, and with the proliferation of Internet contents and survey methodologies, Internet-based researches such as Web-based surveys are common today. The World-Wide Web presents researchers with a powerful tool for the collection of data and the Web-based survey provided us with an efficient and valid method to code the data compared with costs associated with conventional surveying methods. Whereas many research studies use quantitative methodology for Web-based survey; this study employed a Web-based content analysis method to the theme how social entrepreneurship was taught in business school. On the basis of the Beyond Grey Pinstripes (BGP) Global 100 List: 2009-2010 of business schools, with an emphasis on environmental, social, and ethical complexities, we analyzed the contents of social entrepreneurship education, teaching methods, professional specialties of the teachers, and grading of the curricula. The results show that the courses offered by most of these business schools had the required social entrepreneurship characteristics. The arrangement of their programs and their teaching methods, which followed the principle of learning by doing, not only enabled the students to balance theory and practice, but also supported the students in creating social enterprises. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.