Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability

Description

Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability: Abstract

Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability is a case study by Joseph El-Khoury and Anna Kim.

Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability examines a social enterprise that is at a turning point in its development. After a successful start-up phase, Gardens Without Borders (GWB) aspires to achieve long-term financial viability.

The case describes various projects carried out by GWB to promote sustainable agriculture around the world before addressing the challenge it now faces: achieving financial sustainability by collaborating with the private sector. Specifically, GWB wishes to develop customizable proposals for partnerships with two corporations known for their commitment to corporate social responsibility.

By studying this case, students are expected to gain an in-depth understanding of real-life challenges faced by social enterprise start-ups and develop strategic decision-making capabilities for creating corporate-social enterprise collaborations for sustainability.

Teaching objectives

• Understand the importance of corporate-social enterprise partnerships and collaborations for sustainability by adopting the perspectives of both a social enterprise and a corporation
• Develop a proposal for corporate-social enterprise partnerships with the goal of creating shared value for sustainability
• Develop a collaboration proposal to be customized according to the specific needs and strategies of potential partners
• Evaluate collaboration proposals considering criteria for identifying and choosing appropriate partners for corporate-social enterprise collaborations
• Understand the conceptual, relational, and action-driven work required for successful collaborations for sustainability

Main themes covered

• Social enterprise management

Concepts and theories related to the case

• Creating shared value (Porter and Kramer, 2011)
• Partnerships for learning (London and Rondinelli, 2003)
• Collaborating for systemic change (Senge et al., 2007)

Additional information

Also available in French.

Teaching notes are available for teachers only. Please contact the HEC Montréal Case Centre.