Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector

Jane Wei-Skillern is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the General Management Unit and Social Enterprise Group at the Harvard Business School. She teaches her MBA elective, Entrepreneurship in the Social Sector at Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government. She also teaches in the HBS Social Enterprise executive education program, Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (SPNM). Professor Wei-Skillern earned her B.S. in Business from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. in Business Research and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior, both from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Prior to joining the faculty at Harvard, she was an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School.Professor Wei-Skillern's research is focused in the field of Social Enterprise. Her research has examined the topics of nonprofit growth and management of multisite nonprofits, and most recently has been focused on nonprofit networks. She is currently studying how building a range of strategic networks can be a powerful lever for nonprofits to achieve greater social impact. A strategic network is distinguished from traditional partnership approaches in that it entails a shift in mindset from the organization as the hub for social value creation, to the organization as a node within a larger network of critical and complementary entities that must work collaboratively to achieve mission impact. Her research explores how trust based strategic networks that leverage resources in innovative ways to achieve mission impact can be created and managed.