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

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.