Overview
The Yunus Social Business Centre is a hub of innovation and impact dedicated to turning visionary concepts into tangible realities. Inspired by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, who coined the term 'Social Business', we champion this ethos at our core.
As per Professor Yunus, a social business places a "social vision at its core." It addresses societal needs and solves human prob ems without being a charity—it generates profit and achieves financial self-sustainability over time.
At our centre, we spearhead the fusion of entrepreneurial spirit and responsible management, driving two pivotal portfolios within the realm of Social Business.
Under our guidance, Entrepreneurship flourishes, fostering the Entrepreneurs in Residence scheme and orchestrating mentorship for our undergraduate students. Joining forces with our partner institution, Lancaster University, we expand this Entrepreneurs in Residence scheme globally, further empowering the 3ZERO Club to fulfil Professor Yunus's vision of three zeros: zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration for ending poverty, and zero unemployment.
At the same time, the centre embraces the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME); we lead the charge in documenting Ƶ Business School's PRME journey, paving the way for school-wide integration.
As fervent PRME advocates, we share insights, conduct i5 teaching methodology workshops, and foster a team of student 'PRME champions' to steer engagement events and student interactions.
Furthermore, we forge Southeast Asian approaches to PRME with ASEAN+ signatories and build collaborative bridges with international partners, including Lancaster University, to pioneer impactful global projects.
At the Yunus Social Business Centre, our commitment to the Social Business model propels entrepreneurship and responsible management, creating a world of lasting change by addressing societal needs while ensuring financial sustainability and profitability.
Mission and Vision
Looking ahead, our focus is firmly on education—strengthening how we design, deliver, and evaluate learning that equips students and educators to build social businesses and lead sustainable change.
In the coming year, we will expand a structured programme of workshops and capacitybuilding sessions for both students and faculty. For students, the emphasis will be on practical skill development: identifying real problems worth solving, understanding communities and stakeholders, testing assumptions, building viable social business models, measuring impact, and communicating value with integrity. For faculty, we will prioritise workshops that support curriculum innovation—helping colleagues integrate social business, sustainability, and entrepreneurship into modules through experiential activities, authentic assessment, and industry/community-based learning. Where possible, these workshops will be designed as reusable teaching “toolkits” that can be adapted across disciplines.
Alongside teaching development, we will strengthen our education-focused research agenda. This includes research that examines what truly works in social business, sustainability, and entrepreneurship education—such as the conditions that support student agency, the role of values and purpose in learning, and how experiential approaches influence competencies over time. We also aim to build stronger evidence around assessment: how we evaluate sustainability-oriented learning outcomes credibly, fairly, and in ways that encourage continuous improvement rather than compliance.
Crucially, we will treat education initiatives as both delivery and inquiry: piloting new approaches, learning quickly, and refining based on student feedback and measurable outcomes. Through this, the Centre will continue to contribute not only to better learning experiences at Ƶ, but also to the wider conversation on how higher education can develop graduates who are capable of building responsible enterprises and creating meaningful impact.