Teaching Social Entrepreneurship in Universities. The case of the Maramures County, Romania

Applying entrepreneurship within social organizations will generate positive effects for the entire society. Under these circumstances, the next inherent questions arise: Why is social entrepreneurship “underdeveloped” and how could we fix this problem? One reason for the underdevelopment of entrepreneurship within social organizations is that most social leaders do not have adequate training in economics. Even if some entrepreneurial traits such as creativity, originality, risk-taking, initiative, may be innate, in the absence of economic and management knowledge, social leaders will either fail or be unable to act efficiently. On the other hand, graduates of Economics, who possess knowledge and entrepreneurial skills as well, do not show a strong inclination towards the social component. A possible cause of their low interest in the social field could be the curriculum in Economics that does not include an approach of issues in terms of non-profit organizations. Based on these considerations, we argue that higher education institutions are directly accountable for both the existing situation and identifying and implementing some measures for entrepreneurship development in the social sector. This article seeks to analyze the importance and effects of social entrepreneurship and how universities can contribute to its development. Whereas museums have an important contribution in creating a proper system of social values and increasing the regional economic development, as public organizations operating in the community service, we chose the case of the Maramures County, Romania, in order to demonstrate the existing correlations between university, county museums and tourism. The article suggests some measures that should be considered by these two types of (not for profit) institutions, universities and museums, focused to achieve a common goal, namely to develop the county tourism (a for profit industry) by means of an entrepreneurial partnership.