Student Entrepreneurs as Agents of Organizational Change and Social Transformation: a Grassroots Leadership Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to illustrate organizational change that is created through the grassroots leadership of socially-oriented student entrepreneurs. The implications of organizational change created by such student entrepreneurs who act as bottom-up leaders are explored at the institutional level (single university) and at the field level (higher education sector). The empirical point of analysis is the student-led emergence and establishment of the Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) in the Haas School of Business at the University of California – Berkeley. This competition has led to organizational change not only within the university, but also across the global higher education sector through contributions made to a larger student-led movement to influence social change and the betterment of society through entrepreneurship. Student entrepreneurship is explored in the context of a grassroots student movement that sometimes leverages the market and market-like conditions of colleges and universities to create both organizational change and social transformation. This study is particularly relevant to scholars interested in organizational change within contemporary market-oriented environments of higher education and in social movements that involve student leadership.